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22 July
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29 October 2006
Works on display
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Allard L’Olivier
1883–1933 Belgian
Kiyu Agricole date unknown
Oil on canvas
support: 800 x 1000 mm
The Private Collection of Freddie Booker-Carson and Simon Carson
The strength and solidity of the composition is
exemplified by the extraodinary sense of
rootedness about the central figure. This
reflects the naturalistic portraits of rural
labourers in the work of L’Olivier’s European
contemporaries, which set out to illustrate the
link between the peasants and their land. In
contrast, the smoking chimneys in the
background mark the incursion of
modern industry.
Mike Phillips, curator
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Fernand Allard L’Olivier
1883–1933 Belgian
Serenade 1926
Oil on canvas
image: 1078 x 1795 mm
The Private Collection of Freddie Booker-Carson and Simon Carson
 Enlarge image
The composition suggests Edouard Manet’s
Olympia 1863, but here, the subject is
dreaming instead of gazing out at the viewer,
while the black maidservant is a man playing
violin. The transposition hints at repressed
sexuality, and a frustrated nostalgia for
European tradition, framed within a
romanticised vision of Africa.
Mike Phillips, curator
This painting reminded me of the complicated
relationships that some white people and
African Americans had in the American south,
when it was taboo to be together. Those
relationships could be quite intimate, but
never consummated. She seems relaxed as if
this was something that happened often. I do
not believe that he is a ‘typical’ servant.
Freddie Booker-Carson, collector
Maybe it is the music that is serenading her or
the presence of this man. There is an
interesting juxtaposition of the ‘exotic’ person
next to a ‘non-exotic’ white person. I think the
African man is treated as an anomaly or an
object of curiosity.
Hassan Arero, anthropologist
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Fernand Allard L’Olivier
1883–1933 Belgian
Study for Femme Mutusi 1930
Oil on paper
support: 690 x 473 mm
The Private Collection of Freddie Booker-Carson and Simon Carson
Enlarge image
This is a study for a huge and impressive
mural that the artist made for the international
exhibition of 1935 in Brussels at the Institute of
Tropical Medicine.
Freddie Booker-Carson, collector
This is a Rwandese Tutsi woman. The Tutsis are
very interesting because they are pastoralists
and have a closer affinity with groups from the
horn of Africa rather than the Bantu. The
woman carries a stick, a symbol of authority. It
is an early period for her to be covered so
much – clothes were expensive, it means she
has status. Her ornaments suggest that she
could have been part of the chieftains or
a queen.
Hassan Arero, anthropologist
The artist’s struggle to record the detail of the
people and customs he saw is reflected in the
naturalism of this portrait. Exceptionally, he
doesn’t arrange his subject in an erotic pose.
Instead the eye is drawn to the pattern of the
cloth and the jewellery.
Mike Phillips, curator
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