ertä

Erté, born Romain de Tirtoff (1892–1990), was a Russian-born French artist and designer best known for his opulent Art Deco fashion illustrations and theatre costume and set designs. He adopted the pseudonym Erté in Paris, a stylized version of his initials, and built a signature style that defined 1920s–1930s fashion imagery.

Born in Saint Petersburg, he studied art there before moving to Paris in 1912 to pursue illustration and costume design. In Paris and later in New York, he produced fashion plates for magazines such as Harper's Bazaar and Vogue, combining elongated figures, geometric ornament, and metallic detailing characteristic of Art Deco. He also designed costumes and stage sets for theatre, opera, and ballet, as well as for film and cabaret.

Over a long career, Erté produced drawings, lithographs, posters, and decorative designs for textiles and jewelry, maintaining a consistent yet evolving visual language that ranged from sleek modern silhouettes to richly decorative, theatrical fantasies. He spent much of his life in Paris and New York, influencing both fashion illustration and stage design, and his work helped popularize the glamorous, machine-age aesthetics of the era.

Erté's works are held by major museums worldwide, and retrospectives have highlighted his role as a defining figure of the Art Deco movement and a major contributor to twentieth-century fashion and theatrical design.