Paper short abstract:

This paper examines Jeanne Maquet-Tombu's patronage of pattern books that document Congolese raffia mat designs and the motifs' names. I situate the design books within Maquet-Tombu's larger agenda to promote the Congoelse arts in the 1930s.

Paper long abstract:

As one of the founding members of the Association des Amis de l'Art Indigène, an advocate for the creation Musée de la Vie Indigène, member of the Union des Femmes Coloniales, and the wife of colonial administrator Marcel Maquet, Jeanne Maquet-Tombu was a vocal advocate for many projects promoting artistic endeavors in colonial-era Congo.

In 1939, Maquet-Tombu publishes a brief essay in the inaugural edition of Brousse. This article shares the local names and translations of several raffia mat motifs from the west of the Belgian Congo. In just a few short paragraphs, Maquet-Tombu's enthusiasm leaps from the page. Accompanying her published article, she also seems to have commissioned several pattern books documenting designs alongside their local names. These books are quite remarkable objects. In one variety, artists hand-colored grids to communicate designs, while in the second form, artists physically wove paper strips to re-create designs and illustrate techniques. This paper addresses Maquet-Tombu's interest in and documentation of Congolese raffia mats created in the 1930s—placing the mats, their artists, and their patrons in a wider historical context.