The Basket Weavers of Lambarene

This very sketchy oil painting depicts several men weaving palm leaves into baskets. In an era long before the internet and cell phone photos, Fritz became something of a painter-reporter for Lambarene and its Jungle Hospital. The numerous works he brought home from Gabon were exhibited at the Hotel Elite in Zurich and sold very well; a substantial portion of the proceeds went to Albert Schweitzer’s Jungle Hospital at the time. Unfortunately, the works were subsequently scattered to the four winds, leaving us with only a few known paintings from that trip to Africa.