An Artist at the Opera: Erté

Roman de Tirtoff, better known by his professional name Erté (the French pronunciation of the initials R–T), was a Russian-born designer celebrated for his Art Deco fashion. In addition to haute couture, he created shoes, jewelry, interiors, and graphic art, and was an influential stage and costume designer. In the 1920s he worked on major revues—including the Ziegfeld Follies of 1923 and George White’s Scandals—and produced numerous designs for the Folies Bergère in Paris. Much of his theatrical output in that decade was made for the soprano Ganna Walska; he created costumes for her appearances in works such as Rigoletto and Manon (1922), and for other operas including La Bohème, Martha, Faust, and a 1920 French production of Tosca, whose gowns were produced by the couturier Lanvin. Erté’s commissions for the Metropolitan Opera were the 1927 costumes for Pelléas et Mélisande, created for Lucrezia Bori. Other extant designs cover productions such as Fedora (1919), La Traviata (1935) and Capriccio (1952) at the Opéra‑Comique in Paris. His final theatrical work was the 1980 Glyndebourne production of Der Rosenkavalier. Erté’s signature Art Deco sensibility brought a theatrical, dreamlike quality to costume design; seeing his work in fabric, as preserved in museum collections, underscores the vivid imagination behind his drawings.