Ngombe was a self-taught Congolese artist, active principally during the 1970s and 1980s. His paintings are immediately recognisable for their elongated, highly stylised figures, often characterised by expressive or solemn faces set against vivid, colourful backgrounds.

Au Dernier Vivant, painted in 1975, possesses a particularly quiet beauty. A mother and child appear absorbed in their own intimate world, their elongated forms giving the scene a sense of tenderness and stillness.

The painting was made during a period of profound cultural and political change. At the time, the country was known as Zaire, a name adopted in 1971 under President Mobutu Sese Seko as part of a programme of Authenticité, which sought to distance the country from its colonial past and promote a distinctly African cultural identity.

In 1970s Kinshasa, a vibrant and diverse art scene was emerging. Alongside the formal academic tradition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts existed a world of self-taught artists working independently in studios and workshops. Their work drew upon a wide range of sources: Congolese traditions and imagery, Christianity, popular culture and the rapidly changing life of the modern city.

Ngombe’s work belongs to this fascinating moment when artists were negotiating the relationship between inherited traditions, colonial history and modern African identity. Paintings such as Au Dernier Vivant offer intimate glimpses into a period of enormous transformation, when artists across the continent were reclaiming their own visual languages while looking towards a rapidly changing future.