Bernard Séjourné (1947-1994) was born in Haiti where his family were planters. He studied painting and the history of art first in Jamaica and later in the United States, still preserving close ties with his island home. Mysterious, sophisticated and very different from the naive style favoured by other Haitian painters, Séjourné’s work holds echoes of some ancient culture: women with long graceful necks and half-closed eyes; seashells and tropical flowers; the subtle charm of pastel colours and smooth, wave-like shapes.

His trio of masks rising from the dark in their “white negritude” for the label of Mouton Rothschild 1986 is one of the finest examples of his work.