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Artist or Maker: PRIVAT LIVEMONT (1861-1936)
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Condition: Condition A-: restoration, creases and minor foxing in margins; tears along
horizontal folds.
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Dimensions: 603/4x25 inches.
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Notes: Although Privat Livemont is often considered Mucha's Belgian alter ego, he
was by no means Mucha's disciple. Livemont's first poster dates from 1890,
five years before Mucha designed Gismonda. What they have in common is
the same adoration of the female image and sense of ornamentation. What
makes their work fundamentally different is their palettes. Livemont focuses
on light pastel tones with greens and blues and his work is punctuated by
white outlines that serve to make his figures really stand out against the
background. This classic Art Nouveau image is one of Livemont's best
designs and was praised as early as 1898 in L'Estampe et l'Affiche: "It's a
suave young lady, with a wild head of hair, lifting, in a graceful manner, a
cup of steaming cocoa, whose escaping vapors frame this delectable
painting. A light and silky garment in yellow, clear and green tints, with here
and there some chrysanthemums strewn about as usual, reveals to the
spellbound eye the pure lines of a young and graceful body." (p.16). DFP II
1065, Wine Spectator 83.
