ERTE The Editor's Collection, Parkwest Galleries, 1974

Erte, or Romain de Tirtoff (1892 – 1990) was a Russian-born French artist and designer known by the pseudonym Erté, from the French pronunciation of his initials. He was a diversely talented 20th-century artist and designer who flourished in an array of fields, including fashion, jewelry, graphic arts, costume and set design for film, theatre, and opera, and interior decor. His highly distinctive and iconic style is inspired by Art Deco, and is characterized by dreamy and decorative fashion figures rendered with simplified two-dimensional forms, dramatic curling linework, and high contrast with the combination of black, white and selective color palettes, even sometimes with metallic silver or gold inks.