By 1898, poster magazines were calling Privat-Livemont "The uncontested master of Belgian posterists." He had dazzled the poster world with delicately drawn design which, while conceive somewhat differently from Mucha's, created the same final effect of celebrating feminine pulchritude in the service of commercial enterprise. Privat-Livemont could not have been a Mucha disciple for the simple reason that he started out earlier, but had had the same penchant for the idealized female, the same meticulous draftsmanship, and the same mystery of the principles of decorative style.

Privat-Livemont came to posters by accident, via interior design. After studying it and embarking on it as a career first in his home town of Schaerbeek in Belg...