The Russian-born painter Romain de Tirtoff, who
called himself Erté after the French pronunciation of his
initials, was one of the foremost fashion and stage designers
of the early twentieth century. From the sensational silver
lamé costume, complete with pearl wings and ebony-plumed cap,
that he wore to a ball in 1914, to his magical and elegant
designs for the Broadway musical Stardust in 1988, Erté
pursued his chosen career with unflagging zest and creativity
for almost 80 years. On his death in 1990, he was hailed as
the "prince of the music hall" and "a mirror of fashion for 75
years".
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Born in St. Petersburg and
destined by his father for a military career, Erté confounded
expectation by creating his first successful costume design at
the age of five, and was
finally allowed to move to Paris in 1912, in fulfillment of
his ambition to become a fashion illustrator. He soon gained a
contract with the journal Harper's Bazaar, to which he
continued to contribute fashion drawings for 22 years. Erté is
perhaps best remembered for the gloriously extravagant
costumes and stage sets that he designed for the
Folies-Bergère in Paris and George White's Scandals in New
York, which exploit to the full his taste for the exotic and
romantic, and his appreciation of the sinuous and lyrical
human figure. As well as the music-hall, Erté also designed
for the opera and the traditional theatre, and spent a brief
and not wholly satisfactory period in Hollywood in 1925, at
the invitation of Louis B. Mayer, head of Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer.
After a period of relative
obscurity in the 1940s and 1950s, Erté's characteristic style
found a new and enthusiastic market in the 1960s, and the
artist responded to renewed demand by creating a series of
colorful lithographic prints and sculpture. This luxuriously
illustrated museum contains a rich and representative
selection of images, drawn from throughout Erté's long and
extraordinary productive career
The death of
Erte in April 1990 at the age of ninety-seven brought an end
to a career of extraordinary brilliance and success - or
rather two careers. The first, which began when the
young Russian aristocrat Romain de Tirtoff Arrived in Paris in
1912, extended through a stint in the haut couture house of
Poiret and a twenty-two-year association with Harper's bazaar
to the beginning of World War II. During that period,
Erte Produced 250 covers for Bazaar; innumerable drawings for
the magazine's pages; fashion designs for some of the world's
most glamorous women; costumer and set designs for Hollywood
movies and stage productions ranging from scenes in George
White's Scandals and Folies-Bergere to the Paris Opera; and a
variety of product designs.
Following a
period of comparative eclipse during the war and its
aftermath, Erté's second career began when he met London art
dealer Eric Estorick in 1967. Impressed by the huge body
of superb work in the artist's Paris studio, Estorick was
determined to relaunch Erté's career. This effort was
crowned with spectacular success in New York and London
exhibitions of gouache paintings and drawings. As
important as was the sale of pictures, the enthusiastic
response of many start of theater and fashion who came to
Erté's exhibitions gave the strongest indication that there
was still a keen audience for his work. Indeed, it
became apparent that the demand for it by not only those able
to afford originals but young people of limited means was too
large to be satisfied by the existing works. This led to
the decision to create multiples - first graphics and, later,
bronze sculptures.
As Estorick
says in his text, to characterize the success of these
programs as a revival is inadequate; it was a sensation.
During the twenty-five years of Erté's second career he
achieved again the level of fame that he had in an earlier
generation, but with an even wider public. Those years
saw also the publication of many books on Erté's work,
including two large-format books on the graphics, "Erte at
Ninety" and "Erte at Ninety-Five", and one on the sculpture
"Erte Sculpture".
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