Pierre-Joseph Valcin was born in Port-au-Prince in 1925. Valcin worked as a mechanic and stone mason before becoming a painter. Valcin began to paint after he was introduced to the Centre d’Art by his half-brother, the late painter Gerard Valcin, in 1959. Gerard Valcin instructed Pierre-Joseph for his first year at the Centre d’Art. While much of his work owes a debt to Gerard’s instruction, it was always looser, less stylized and more intuitive than his master’s. Pierre-Joseph continued to paint through the 1990’s. He passed away in 2000.