A strong international interest in Congolese art, its collection and public display has grown steadily since it was first institutionalised with the foundation of Belgium’s Royal Museum of Central Africa (RMCA) in the early 1900s. In order to represent the chronological development of painting studios from Elisabethville to Brazzaville, this book is organised into three distinct sections. Following a general introduction to Congolese art since the initial colonial encounters, and Congolese painting more broadly, the first section describes the emerging workshop initiated by George Thiry. The book’s second section discusses the painting studio established by Pierre Romain-Desfossés, and the final section focuses on the schools of Laurent Moonens and Pierre Lods, highlighting the development of similar but decisively different institutions that brought European art materials to the Congo. These workshops taught established techniques and subsequently made famous in Europe some of the Congo’s better established local artists.