Privat Livemont (Belgian, 1861-1936), Water Color

Artist: Privat Livemont (1861-1936), Belgium

Title: Dutch Iris Flowers

Date: 1902

Medium: Original Water Color, Image of Dutch Iris Flower’s of various colors and shades of earth tone colors within a green tone mannerism;

Materials: Medium on Light brown paper;

Markings: Signed, on the lower right corner of the artwork;

Dimensions: 16-½" x 6-3/8";

Framed: Yes, item has remained within the original frame when acquired by Mr. Prince and Mr. Hemphill, Jr. Artwork is Framed behind Glass, within a Wooden frame colored with silver type gilded paint, with each corner imprinted with various tree leaves on to the frame;

Inventory No: NAPT.1999.000234

Provenance: Neal Adair Prince Trust u/a/d 10.18.1999

Mr. Neal Prince

Mr. Neal A. Prince and Mr. Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr.

Roy Davis Gallery, 231 East 60^th Street, New York, New York 10022

Footnote¹: This item is part of Mr. Prince's Art Nouveau Collection.

Footnote: Mr. Livemont is commonly known by his work in the poster for "Vanhouten's Cacao" from 1900.

Privat T. Livemont, (1861-1936), Belgium

Privat T. Livemont was born in Schaerbeek, Brussels, Belgium in 1861; he died in Schaerbeek, 1936. He began his studies at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs at Saint-Josse-ten-Noodle and, in 1883; he won a scholarship to study in Paris, where he remained for six years. While in Paris, Livemont worked painting architectural decorations and stage designs and studied evenings with Delaporte at the Ecole Etienne-Marcel. He returned to his native Schaerbeek in 1889 to begin a career as a painter and printmaker, and in 1890 created what would become the first of thirty posters which he would design by the year 1900. The Poster magazine of August/September 1898 devoted a major article to the work of this great Belgian art nouveau designer. It had been insinuated that Privat Livemont was a continuator, or rather an imitator of Mucha. Livemont is viewed as an artist ever seeking original ideas, a lover of his art, and so sure of his own powers that he can rely on himself for inspiration. Livemont was a virtuoso poster lithographer, always drawing the image on the stone himself.