Artist Biographies

Fernand Allard L’ Olivier (1883-1933). Belgian.

Allard L’Olivier 1883–1933 Belgian Kiyu Agricole date unknown Oil on canvas The Private Collection of Freddie Booker-Carson and Simon Carson Enlarge image

Olivier trained in Tornai, Brussels, and in Paris, where the realistic painter Adler, (renowned for painting the outcasts of society) was a great influence on him. After World War I, he became successful in both Belgium and France, but preferred to travel in Europe, Algeria and Tunisia. In 1928, he left for the Belgian Congo, and in 1929, exhibited the works produced in Allard L’Olivier au Congo in Brussels. Of great originality, these pictures as well as those shown at the 1930 International Exhibition in Antwerp and 1931 Colonial Exhibition in Paris confirmed Olivier’s place as leader of the Belgian Africanist movement..

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