Erté, 1892-1990

By Valerie Kniazeva

From creating covers for different fashion magazines to designing sets and costumes for theatrical and musical productions, and traveling the world in the process, Roman Petrovich Tyrtov did it all. Better known as Erté and considered one of the fathers of the Art Deco movement, Tyrtov was born on the 23 November 1892 to a military family but was destined for a different path after his visit to the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900. Inspired to become an artist, he moved to Paris at the age of 19 and created the pseudonym ‘Erté’ after the French pronunciation of his initials. Within a few brief months, Erté realized that he did not like the constrictions of the academic structure at the Académie Julian, so he made the decision to allow his imagination to grow wilder and he let his touch bring surreal ideas to life as he sought to create innovative costumes and designs.

Quickly capturing the attention of others, as he succeeded in doing throughout his career, Erté became acquainted with the famous couturier Paul Poiret, beginning a studio collaboration creating costumes and sets for theatrical productions. Erté took a gamble when he started dispersing his illustrations internationally after Poiret was forced to close his studio temporarily during the First World War to create military uniforms. This twist of fate brought Erté to America, where he began working for ‘Vogue’ and signed an exclusive ten-year contract with ‘Harper’s Bazaar’ in 1916, keeping him briefly in the United States. During this time, he designed costumes, theatre sets, and women’s apparel and accessories, alongside making covers of gouache and pen illustrations for magazines around the world. While he faced challenges during the global economic crisis of the 1930s, Erté found great success in the second half of the twentieth century and he worked until his dying days.

Even years after his final drawing was drawn, Erté is not forgotten in the art world and is recognized for his sophisticated and inventive designs. An engaged critic of fashion trends of past and contemporary, Erté experimented with nearly all textiles, even contradicting himself by using materials he had written he did not approve of in the constant search for something new. Understanding the quickly evolving nature of fashion, he never stopped looking and trying different designs and combinations, even if that led to accusations of hypocrisy. Aiming to create asymmetrical and unisex looks, he used Art Deco motifs in his designs, especially prominently in the interiors and backgrounds of his illustrations.

Originally adopting the pseudonym Erté to avoid disgracing his family, Roman Petrovich Tyrtov ended up a revolutionary fashion designer and artist who has left an imprint not only on the world of fine visual arts, but the fashion and performative arts as well. Creating over twenty thousand drawings and designs over his career of seventy-five years, Erté once claimed that “monotony endangers boredom and I have never been bored in my life”; such was the passion and elegance of Erté’s legacy, he continues to inspire today.

Bibliography

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Gingrich, Bethany. Erté: Fashion Journalist and Critic, 1919–1925. Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2019. https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/erté-fashion-journalist-critic-1919-1925/docview/2290797963/se-2.

Positano, Anna Marzia. ‘Review of Erté: The Glamour and Seduction of Art Deco from the Museo del Corso, Rome’. Art on Paper 6, no. 2 (2001): 88–89. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24558496.

‘Romain de Tirtoff Erté.’ Stephen Ongpin Fine Art. Accessed November 19, 2023. https://www.stephenongpin.com/artist/238622/romain-de-tirtoff-erte.

Simanowski, Roberto. ‘Digital Anthropophagy: Refashioning Words as Image, Sound and Action.’ Leonardo 43, no. 2 (2010): 159–123. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40661622.

‘Works - Erté: A Celebration.’ Grosvenor Gallery. Accessed November 19, 2023. https://www.grosvenorgallery.com/exhibitions/47-erte-a-celebration/works/.