Murat Saint Vil was born September 13, 1955 in Port-au-Prince. He finished grade school at St Jean L’Aumonier and high school at St Yves. In 1972 his father encouraged him to study drawing and painting under the direction of the late famous Haitian master Préfète Duffaut. Saint Vil began to draw at an ealy age. In 1983, he was awarded the Prix Suisse for naïve painting. At the 12th International Competition of the Kasper Morges Pro Arte Gallery, he won the Bronze Lansquenet. From 1975 to 1985 Saint Vil exhibited in Martinique, Guadeloupe, the United States, Denmark, Curaçao, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, France, and England. (Biography based on the books Haiti Voodoo Kingdom to Modern Riviera by John Allen Franciscus and La Peinture Haitienne by Marie-José Nadal & Gérald Bloncourt,169)