Erté

Pseudonym of Romain de Tirtoff (1892-1990), an illustrator and costume and set designer. He was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and naturalized as a French citizen. He was 76 years old when a retrospective exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York caused him to be rediscovered by art dealers and collectors, improving the market for his work. This set him apart from the crowded group of illustrators, also masters of their trade, who devoted themselves to fashion and the smart set at the same time he did, the period between the two world wars and a short time before. In Russia, as a young boy, he studied in the atelier of Ilia Repin. In 1912, he decided to improve his talent at the Académie Julian in Paris and at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Poiret discovered him and gave him his start, allowing him to earn a living by designing models for his collections, a trade that fascinated him. After all, according to legend, at the age of 6, young Romain created an evening outfit for his mother. From Paris, he sent drawings to Damsky Min, the most important fashion magazine in czarist Russia. Poiret opened the doors of the Gazette du Bon Ton to him. Diaghilev asked him to design costumes and sets for his ballets. Erté’s style, though influenced by the painting of the Pre-Raphaelites, and by floral and Art Deco patterns, had an original touch that was perhaps the result of pictures he saw in the library of his father, who was an admiral. These included 16th century Persian and Indian miniatures, from which he acquired certain precious decorative motifs, as well as a love for details and for gold and silver. Between 1916 and 1938 he designed innumerable covers for Harper’s Bazaar. During the 1920s and 1930s he would work in both Paris and New York on the sets for the Folies Bergères (he designed several costumes for Joséphine Baker) and the Ziegfeld Follies. Hollywood also wanted him, and he created sets and costumes for The Mystic and La Bohème. He was very famous for his Alphabet, which used the shape of a woman to form each letter.