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"Unlike France, where almost all artistic activity was concentrated in the capital, Belgium had a secondary creative centre of exceptional quality, the city of Liege. With his friends Emile Berchmans and Armand Rassenfosse, Donnay formed a trio of artists recognized as the three most important of Liege. Of the three, Donnay was the more grave and meditative. The atmosphere his posters release has nothing to do with the life poured forth by Berchmans (see PL.108) and Rassenfosse (see PL.12, and PL. 224). His woman neither laugh nor drink, they are thoughtful. His body of work, full of contained emotion, is of great pictorial purity" (Weill p.61, 62)

Artemis is known as the greek goddess of the night, the huntress, the goddess of fruitfulness, the goddess of childbirth, Lady of the Beasts, the woodland goddess, the bull goddess, the personification of the moon, and the eternal virgin. Artemis was one of the few goddesses immune to the enchantments of Aphrodite. As a huntress, she happily traveled in woods in the company of dogs, wild beasts, and mountain nymphs.

Auguste Donnay was born in Liège, the son of the sculptor Lambert Donnay. At a young age he attended night classes at the Liège Académie des Beaux-Arts, where one of his teachers was Émile Berchmans. Auguste Donnay went to Paris on a five-months travel bursary at the age of 25. There, Donnay met the Nabis, and discovered the work of Puvis de Chavannes. Donnay became a professor at the Liège Académie in 1901. Auguste Donnay was a writer as well as a painter and illustrator; the Musée de l'Art Wallon de Liège organised an exhibition celebrating his work in 1991. (Idbury Prints)

Not unlike the Maitres de L'Affiche series, L'Estampe Moderne was a portfolio printed between 1897-98, published by Imprimerie Champenois, Paris, contained 24 monthly portfolios, with four original lithographs in each. Each commissioned only for this series. Some of the contributing artists included Mucha, Rhead, Meunier, Ibels, Steinlen, Willette and Grasset.