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Lot Essay
The career of Paul Mathieu was uneventful until he was commissioned to paint a Congo panorama. In 1911 he travelled to the Congo. He returned in November the same year, ready to execute this important work on the basis of oils and sketches which he had brought back from the colony. The pictures he painted represented a new stage in his career as a landscape artist. The 'African' landscape he executed were vital documents showing the real face of equatorial Africa: they were fine accounts of what he had seen on the spot and had therefore a very important documentary value.
When Mathieu visited Africa, Kinchase was a zone of Leopoldville. Named by the English explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley after his patron, Leopold II, king of the Belgians, the post remained unimportant until the railway line from downstream Matadi was completed in 1898. In 1923, the headquarters of the Belgian Congo were transferred there from Boma; in 1966, the city of Leopoldville was renamed Kinchasa.
When Mathieu visited Africa, Kinchase was a zone of Leopoldville. Named by the English explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley after his patron, Leopold II, king of the Belgians, the post remained unimportant until the railway line from downstream Matadi was completed in 1898. In 1923, the headquarters of the Belgian Congo were transferred there from Boma; in 1966, the city of Leopoldville was renamed Kinchasa.