A Congolese girl

Clement Serneels was a brilliant student at the Brussels Academy. He won a travel grant to Belgian Congo in 1936. Slowly crossing the country from Matadi to Elisabethville, he took the time to paint finished oil pictures at each stop, rather then just making sketches. Although he occasionally did portraits of chiefs, he was interested above all in the beauty of African women's bodies. Serneels returned to the Congo in 1938 but, on the outbreak of World War II, sought refuge in Costermansville, on the lake of Kivu. He spent some time in South Africa before returning to his old home (by then called Bukavu), in 1953. In 1960, he was again forced to leave South Africa, due to political troubles. He eventually settled in Brussels.