Erte Party
Further revelations about the master fashion illustrator.
When I first became interested in fashion illustration, I think it was sparked by Daphne on Scooby Doo. You know her, the mystery-solving glamour puss cartoon character, animated as a fashion plate. I always liked to draw women and girls in imaginative or outlandish outfits. At university I wrote a thesis about the progression of my childhood drawings as they evolved into fashion illustrations.
Erte was one of my favourite illustrators. He didn’t just draw, he designed costumes as well.
There is something about the simple elements in Erte’s drawings: the clean lines; the perfect balance of patterns; the elegant fingers and the jazzy-jewel colours. The fact that he designed costumes for Mata Hari makes a tenuous connection to Daphne- two fashion loving temptresses leading dangerous lives!
Erte came from a privileged background, born in St Petersburg in 1892. His real name was Romain de Tirtoff, Erte being the phonetic pronunciation of his initials, when said with a French accent. Some might say going with the English pronunciation ArrTee (Arty) might have been more appropriate.
Fortunately for Erte, and the worlds of fashion and theatre, his family did not force him to join the navy as was their usual tradition. Instead they allowed him to study portrait painting at the Academie Julien in Paris from 1912. This choice of art college was a good fit for Erte, being more forward thinking than the traditional Ecole de Beaux Arts. (The EBA hadn’t allowed women to study there until 1897, and women were not allowed to draw nude male life models.)
Within a year Erte had begun to work with Paul Poiret, famous for swathing women in harem pants and elaborate hemlines. This connection lead to his first signed fashion illustrations appearing in Gazette du Bon Ton in 1913. Gazette du Bon Ton was a very new publication at the that time, the centrepiece was its fashion illustrations of which there were 10 colour plates in each edition. As an aside, it was a feature in this magazine, of La Fontaine de Coquillages by George Barbier, which lead to me painting a mural on my bathroom wall. Here it is:
After a lightning fast start to his career, suddenly scarlet fever called a hiatus in 1914. Undeterred, Erte took this as an opportunity to move to Monte Carlo with his cousin Prince Nicholas Ouroussoff, where the air was healthier. In spite of his preposterously wealthy background, Erte couldn’t live on fresh sea air alone, he submitted sketches to Harpers Bazaar in America. Thus began a 22-year association with the magazine, during which time Erte produced 240 covers.
In my Substack Notes this week, I shall be incorporating more snippets of Erte’s work so do look out for them. I’ll be gleefully dabbling in creating my own versions, and including my cats sometimes because they lend themselves to Art Deco depiction too.
My next Post will explore the rest of Erte’s career, showcasing what happened during and after his time at Harper’s Bazaar. Stay tuned!
Have you ever heard of Erte before, what do you think of his work? I would love to know.
The following are my illustrations as a tribute to Erte, featuring my cats Olive and Mitzi.
