The red dancers Les danseuses rouges

A watercolour by the artist of one of these 'red' dancers near Kabinda, in the Lomami region of the Belgian Congo, illustrates the article by Chalux, "Au coeur de l'Afrique sauvage", L'Illustration, Paris, October 1929. In the Equateur province and in the Kasa, these women, in certain circumstances, smeared their bodies with earth, oil and the crushed bark of the Kula tree, which coloured them red. Both finished paintings and sketches of these red dancers were exhibited in Allard L'Olivier au Congo, Galeries des Artistes Franais, Brussels, April 1929 and at the Cercle Artistique de Tournai, September 1930. The artist's interest in African dancing is discussed by Sabine Cornelis, in Regards d'Artistes: la palette et la plume au Congo, doctarate thesis, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1994-1995.