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Young and Flamboyant
Erté pursued his chosen career with unflagging
zest and creativity for almost 80 years. Among most noted were
his elegant designs for the Broadway musical Stardust
in 1988. On his death in 1990, he was hailed as the "prince
of the music hall" and "a mirror of fashion for 75
years". His spectacular imprint is one of a fondly remembered
sensational silver lamé costume, complete with pearl
wings and ebony-plumed cap, that he wore to a ball in 1914.
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.
Erté the Artist
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.
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.
Remembering Erté
The death of Erté in April 1990 at the
age of ninety-seven brought an end to a career of extraordinary
brilliance and success. From the young Russian aristocrat Romain
de Tirtoff Arrived in Paris in 1912, to a stint in the haut
couture house of Poiret and a twenty-two-year association with
Harper's Bazaar.
Erté 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. He will be forever
remembered seated at the apex of art histories "greatest
and most flamboyant", and his achievements will live on
through his fabulous timeless treasures.
"The
Nile" - Item #01471 Available for Purchase at BuySellArt.com
"Sampson and Delilah" - Item #01472 Available for Purchase
at BuySellArt.com
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