ALEXANDRE PHOTO "Après une chasse aux hippopotames".... Lot 966

ALEXANDRE PHOTO "Après une chasse aux hippopotames". 13 July 1891 Albumen print, 40,5 x 55,5 cm, pasted on support paper (sl. browned and soiled), photographer's blindstamp in lower left corner "Alexandre Photo" and ms. dedication signed "A. Delcomunne" on lower right corner. Framed 83 x 103 cm (not studied outside frame). Dedication from A. Delcomunne: "A mon frère Emile / Souvenir d'une chasse à l'hippopotame / Lac le Lomami / 13 juillet 1891". A. Delcommune (1855-1922) was a Belgian officer of the armed Force Publique of the Congo Free State. He undertook extensive explorations of the country during the early colonial period. He explored the waterways of the Congo Basin and led an expedition to Katanga primarily to find gold and secondarily to settle the country and try to make the Nyamwezi trader Msiri who had seized power to accept Belgian rule. The route via the Lualaba river turned out extremely difficult whereafter Delcommune went on by land. In 1891 the expedition reached Bunkeya, but Delcommune was unable to persuade Msiri to accept Belgian rule and continued south. It is against this background this remarkable photo of an enormous hunting trophee was shot. In fact, Émile Delcommune was the nephew of Alexandre who became commercial agent for the Société Anonyme Belge for the Commerce du Haut-Congo. On the photo we see at least 12 killed hippopotami surrounded by people of local tribes (one even sitting on a killed hippopotamus laid upside down). In front two white people. Probably one of them is Alexander Delcommune.