Lot Essay
Study for the left-hand panel of a triptych 'Ruandi-Urundi', illustrated in Revue coloniale belge, Brussels, 1948. It was offered in 1947 by these mandated countries to Mr Jungers, governor general of the Belgian Congo, and formerly governor of Ruanda-Urundi.
These famous dancers, the 'Intore', traditionally sons of chiefs or notables of the Tutsi people, were the elite of the army. Given a long traning in the arts of war and sport, they would perform acrobatic dances at the court of the ruler, or mwami. Their full-dress were characterised by the skin of a leopard or serval, a fibre headdress, jewellery, and lance or a staff hung with streams of raphia. When Deckers painted them in Astrida, in Ruanda, they were kept by the Mwami Mutara III, but, by then, only performed on special occasions.
These famous dancers, the 'Intore', traditionally sons of chiefs or notables of the Tutsi people, were the elite of the army. Given a long traning in the arts of war and sport, they would perform acrobatic dances at the court of the ruler, or mwami. Their full-dress were characterised by the skin of a leopard or serval, a fibre headdress, jewellery, and lance or a staff hung with streams of raphia. When Deckers painted them in Astrida, in Ruanda, they were kept by the Mwami Mutara III, but, by then, only performed on special occasions.