Gisbert Combaz (1869-1941) practiced briefly as a lawyer before becoming a designer and a teacher. Well known as an Oriental scholar, the Combaz produced several lithographed posters advertising exhibitions staged by La Libre Esthetique. This was one of several Belgian organizations devoted to exhibiting Belgian as well as foreign artists such as Monet, Gauguin, Cezanne and Matisse. Early lithographs show Combaz working with a few flat decorative shapes not unlike those favored by the English Beggarstaff Brothers. He then moved into a cloisonne style of patterned images - birds, figures, land and seascapes - enclosed by a dark, unvarying line. After the year 1906, marked by a poster of a blue fishing boat on a greenish sea showered with Divisionist dots in contrasting colors, the artist seems to have concentrated on blending cloisonnism and pointillism, notably in some gouaches of oversized flowers (orchids, it appears, have been to Belgium what tulips have been to Holland). A good draftsman, Combaz used stock art nouveau motifs, but his technique is too burly and his colors are too rich for him to be regarded as typical of the era. His best works here are the lush designs for friezes and tiles -inventive, beautifully colored arrangements of entwined plant and animal forms.
