Erté's Futuristic Visions: A journey through Art Déco dreams

Erté was born Romain de Tirtoff in St. Petersburg, Russia on November 23, 1892.

He was the only son of an admiral in the Imperial Fleet and was raised amidst Russia’s social elite.

As a young boy, Romain worshipped his mother and was educated at home until the age of twelve, spending much of the time in the company of elegant women.

At the age of five, he conceptualized an evening gown for his mother and managed to persuade her to have it crafted. She was astounded by the results.

He was also fascinated by the Persian miniatures he found in his father’s library.

These exotic, brightly patterned designs continued to be important to him and influenced the development of his style.

Erté's Futuristic Visions: A journey through Art Déco dreams / ♪ Mozart ♪

In 1912, Romain left St. Petersburg for Paris at the age of nineteen with the aim of becoming an artist.

He took nothing with him and - as it turned out - he would never return to Russia.

All of the projects of his youth were lost – and with them the Russia where he had grown up.

In December 1912, Romain managed to find work as a draughtsman in a second-rate fashion house called Caroline.

However, at the end of his first month there, the Madame and owner of the establishment, handed back his drawings and offered some maternal advice: to abandon his hopes of becoming an artist since he had no such talent.

In response, Romain put all of his sketches and designs in an envelope and sent them to the most famous person in the world of fashion - Paul Poiret, “Paul le Magnifique”.

Poiret immediately offered him a job at his company, which set the stage for Romain to become a revolutionary force within in the world of Parisian fashion.

Still underage, however, Romain needed his father’s signature on the work contract.

This employment opportunity did not elicit great enthusiasm from the admiral, who had no wish for his son to embark on a career that would bring shame to their noble, military lineage.

It was then that Romain began to use an artistic name and became who the world knows as Erté, an abbreviation formed from the first letters in his first and last names (R.T.).

In 1915, Erté began his long professional relationship with Harper’s Bazaar, starting with the January Issue.

From then on, each month for the next twenty years, the magazine included a colored illustration by Erté.

In total, he created 240 covers for the esteemed magazine.

For six months in 1916, Erté simultaneously worked with Vogue as well, but the owner of Harper’s Bazaar (the media magnate William Randolph Hearst) offered the artist an exclusive long-term contract that was impossible to refuse.

In all, around 2,000 of Erté’s delicate pen and ink compositions created the particularly recognizable style of Harper’s Bazaar in the 1920s and 30s.

They made Erté famous and highly sought-after in America - and his audience expanded across the Atlantic.

Hearst summed up this creative partnership when he said, “What would Harper’s Bazaar have been if it weren’t for Erté”?

Erté’s fashion designs also appeared in many other publications, which made him one of the most widely recognized artists of that era.

Beginning in 1915, Erté asked for his original drawings to be returned to him after they were used for printing.

If this wasn’t possible, he would specially order copies of the drawings for his own possession.

According to his personal calculations, he created more than 17,000 works.

As a result of his highly publicized success, Erté would later be called the father of the “Art Déco” movement.