Pierre Romain-Desfossés in the garden of his studio surrounded by students.
(P. Loos Archives; Photo: Congopresse)
Pierre Romain-Desfossés’ ‘Le Hangar’ Atelier
Thomas Bayet
Twenty years after Georges Thiry’s discovery of talented painters such as Lubaki and Djilatendo, a new centre of artistic creation, chiefly pictorial but also sculptural, was born in 1946 in Elisabethville, now Lubumbashi, under the direction of the Frenchman Pierre Romain-Desfossés.
A native of Brittany, Pierre François Marie Romain-Desfossés was born in Brest in 1887. [1] The military did not interest Pierre Romain-Desfossés, who instead embarked on an artistic career. Mobilised in 1914 as a soldier of the second class, he ended the Great War of 1914–18 as a sergeant, having been decorated with the Croix de Guerre. In 1940, due to the German invasion, Pierre Romain-Desfossés left his homeland, asking his maid to simply tell his wife: “Monsieur will not be home for dinner.” He would never return to France. [2]
Having disembarked in Fort-Lamy (Djamena) in December 1940, he then stayed in Fort-Archambault (Sahr) on the Chari River, where he would meet his orderly Bela, who remained one of his most loyal followers. In 1941, Romain-Desfossés made his way to Brazzaville in the French Congo, charged by Governor General Felix Eboué to draw up a law intended to protect indigenous art and crafts.
There in 1943, Romain-Desfossés first collaborated with Bela on the publication Gutemberg dans la Brousse [Gutenberg of the Bush], a delightfully illustrated collection of fables, with drawings and characters engraved by Bela in wood with a simple pocket knife. [3]
Demobilised in 1944, Romain-Desfossés, accompanied by Bela, travelled the length and breadth of Africa in search of somewhere to settle. It was finally in the Katanga province that he decided to make a home, in Elisabethville at the end of 1944.
Pages from the woodcut edition Gutemberg dans la Brousse. [Gutenberg of the Bush]
Engravings and polychrome prints made by Bela. (P. Loos Archives)
He quickly integrated into the blooming cultural and intellectual life of post-war Elisabethville. While he had taken back up painting during his stay in Kivu province, he also had started to write a collection of short stories, Dans les jardins de Cham [In the Gardens of Cham], chronicling his journey
and impressions of Africa, published in 1946.
It was not a matter of taking a step backwards and imitating the past, but of preserving, as a matter of urgency, the productions of the present and their African sources of inspiration. Throughout his journey, Romain-Desfossés had tried to find the practical centre for this recovery of indigenous art, finally finding it “in this magnificent Congo that, almost on its own, has respected linguistic tradition, which is the key to all others. What is more, through its geographical situation, it is the logical place to concentrate and distribute this type of work.” [4]
Dedication by Pierre Romain-Desfossés
to his collection of stories. (P. Loos Archives)
Pierre Romain-Desfossés and students at Le Hangar. (P. Loos Archives; Photo: Congopresse)
Concerning art and craft, he was opposed to professional schools or studios created for the colonial trade, as he believed this system created workers who were no longer the guarantors of traditional expertise and artistic talent. In 1946 he founded an indigenous art studio in Lubumbashi that would more commonly be called ‘Le Hangar’, later known as the Académie d’art populaire congolais [Academy of Congolese folk art].
When he opened the studio, the idea was not to teach students how to paint in a European way, but to allow them to express their artistic vision and personalities. The young artists he welcomed first took an entrance exam. In Romain-Desfossés’ initiative there was no division of ‘school’ or ‘teacher’. Above all he wanted to guide his students at Le Hangar, a veritable centre of creation and emulation, a helping hand to safeguard their roots, while allowing their indigenous culture to be reborn and evolve.
This initiative was quickly noticed, starting with the visit of Prince Charles, the Regent of Belgium, in 1947. In January 1949, work from Le Hangar was exhibited in Antwerp at the Salle des Fêtes on the Meir, alongside the Precursors and the Stanley Pool painters. Exhibitions were also organised in Paris, Brussels, Louvain, Rome and London.
Pierre Romain-Desfossés and students at Le Hangar.
(P. Loos Archives; Photo: Congopresse)
Program for the exhibition D’arts indigènes
[Indigenous Art] inaugurated on 3 August 1947 in Elisabethville by His Royal Highness the Prince Regent (Prince Charles).
(P. Loos Archives)
Poster for the exhibition 5 painters of the Congo: Bela – Kaballa – N’kulu – Illunga – Pilipili at the Palmes bookstore in Paris, 29 April 1949.
(P. Loos Archives)
It was also in 1949 that America first opened its doors to Congolese painting: “The Rokfellers (sic) are ordering one hundred paintings for the National Museum of Modern Art. Then, it is Philadelphia. Today, New Orleans is following and televising the exhibition. There is coverage in the press from all quarters, in Denmark, France, Spain, South Africa.” [5]
Romain-Desfossés showed great concern for the living conditions of his students. He saw to it that they were guaranteed a regular income and that each artist had an individual bank account that was managed with oversight. Furthermore, he put the money from the sales of their work into a savings account for the studio. For those who he couldn’t see continuing in easel painting, he directed them towards decorative painting or promotional design so that they could find paid work more easily. From the very beginning of Le Hangar each artist was able to develop his own style and technique.
Mwenze was the only painter who preferred to work at the easel. Here ‘Lady Bela’ is replicating on canvas her husband’s compositions. Hanging in the background is one of the panels done in collaboration with Pili Pili and Ilunga for the decoration of the ‘Charlesville’, a new steamer on the Belgium-Congo line. (P. Loos Archives; Photo: C. Lamote, Inforcongo no. 32,422/52)
Mwenze was the only painter who preferred to work at the easel. Here ‘Lady Bela’ is replicating on canvas her husband’s compositions. Hanging in the background is one of the panels done in collaboration with Pili Pili and Ilunga for the decoration of the ‘Charlesville’, a new steamer on the Belgium-Congo line. (P. Loos Archives; Photo: C. Lamote, Inforcongo no. 32,422/52)
Among the students chosen by Romain-Desfossés for their aptitude, three specific names emerged and have marked the history of painting in the Congo: Pili Pili Mulongoy, Bela Sara and Mwenze Kibwanga. Indeed, some students would become instructors at Laurent Moonens’ Academy after 1954. Other artists from the beginning, although talented, either did not enjoy the same level of success or did not pursue this path.
On 31 March 1954, Romain-Desfossés passed away from lung cancer, leaving behind the five students who were working in Le Hangar—the painters Bela, Pili Pili, Mwenze and Kaballa, and the sculptor Aroun. The exceptional man withdrew with the greatest simplicity, soothed by moving tributes. [6]
The following year, Laurent Moonens accepted the five artists from Le Hangar into the D Section (named for Romain-Desfossés), situated within the Académie des Beaux-Arts et des Métiers d’Art, founded in 1951.
This D Section, independent from the other teaching departments, allowed the leading artists from Le Hangar to pursue their work after the death of their mentor, while at the same time offering them financial security. The painters continued to produce paintings and to enjoy a certain degree of success with collectors.
[1] Cornelis 1998, col. 366–71.
[2] Note from his nephew Hervé Romain-Desfossés in 1981, Dierickx Archives; P. Loos Archives; Lihau Mamiyo Moseka Ligo 1980, annexe 1.
[3] Gutemberg dans la Brousse was published in album form (35 x 26 cm) with a print run of one hundred copies. In October 1944, the thirteen plates were reproduced in smaller format in a special edition of the magazine Renaissances.
[4] Romain-Desfossés 1949, 173.
[5] Van Herreweghe 1952, 15.
[6] Among others: Le peintre Pierre Romain-Desfossés est mort [Painter Pierre Romain-Desfossés is dead], in La voix du Congolais, 1954, 98, 389–390; Luc, Pierre Romain-Desfossés est décédé [Pierre Romain-Desfossés has died], in Jeune Afrique, 1954, 21, 7–8; Van Den Bossche 1955; special supplement Hommage à Pierre Romain-Desfossés, in Jeune Afrique, Cahier de l’Union Africaine des Arts et des Lettres, 1955, 9/23.
Pili Pili and Ilunga working together in Le Hangar. (P. Loos Archives; Photo: Congopresse)
Entrance to Le Hangar, published in Grands Lacs, July 1953. (Dierickx Archives; P. Loos Archives)
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