Roland Dorcely was born on November 18, 1930 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He was schooled at St. Louis de Gonzague and Pétion High School. In 1946 he joined the Art Center and the same year travelled to France, where he studied with Fernand Léger and André Masson. He participated at the Hall of Plastic Arts and founded Brochette with Luckner Lazard in 1954. He returned to France and lived in Paris from 1962 on. He moved back to Haiti in 1969. From 1946 to 1961 Dorcely exhibited in the United States and France. He received the first Prize awarded by President Estimé Dumarsais at a Haitian exhibition in 1947. His paintings are in many private collections as well as museums such as the Museum of Modern Art in Paris and the New York Museum of Modern Art. During the period 1961-1977 he exhibited in Colombia and Canada. (La Peinture Haitienne,/ Haitian Arts by Marie-José Nadal & Gérald Bloncourt). Dorcely passed away in 2017.