 He was initially sent to the Congo by the Belgian government in 1934 and then settled in Kisenyi (modern-day Rwanda), on the shores of Lake Kivu, in 1947, where he died in 1959.In 1934 he forged a relationship with the Tutsi king Mwambi Matura III (of Ruanda-Burundi) and painted a series of detailed portraits of the king’s family and court.Prior to his African period, he painted scenes of southern France, Naples, Capri, and Sicily, when he traveled through these areas as a young man.