Posters on Loan

High Tea: Glorious Manifestations East and West

The Norton Museum of Art
February 19, 2015 - May 24, 2015 

 

         

         

         

1899 Original Belgian Art Nouveau Poster, Rajah - Livemont

Date: 1899
Size:  30 x 16.5 inches
Notes: Poster, Linen Backed 
Artist: Livemont, Privat

About The Poster: Privat Livemont (Belgian 1861-1936) was a Belgian artist who helped pioneer the Art Nouveau movement in the early 1890's. He was an established painter who stumbled into posters after a brief career as an interior decorator: when he exhibited a poster design for an art exhibit he won first prize. Following this event, he trained himself in the art of lithography and created a number of advertising posters. Livemont's posters are recognized by his signature portrayal of women, richly adorned and decorated and always outlined in white to give them an aura of purity. Along with Paul Berthon and Alphonse Mucha, Privat Livemont as an artist exemplified the skills, delicacy and finesse of the latest years of the 1800's - his women were always graceful, elegant, and imminently spectacular. By 1898, the 'Poster Magazine' was calling Privat Livemont 'the uncontested master of Belgian posterists'. He had dazzled the poster world with delicately drawn designs, which while conceived somewhat differently from Mucha's, created the same final effect of celebrating feminine pulchritude in the service of commercial enterprise.'(Rennert) 

Privat Livemont produced a variety of posters for Rajah, of which this is perhaps the most recognized. In very good condition with unobtrusive stains in the right