"Riviera"

Limited edition serigraph
on artist paper
Hand signed by Erte (1892-1990)
Roman numerically numbered
Certificate of authenticity
7 x 10 inches (image)
12.5 x 16 inches (border)

Our Price $3,500.00

"Le toilette"

Limited edition serigraph
on artist paper
Numbered and Hand signed

Certificate of authenticity
12.5 x 10 (image size)
13.5 x 11 (w/Border)
Retail price: $4,850

Our Price $2,900.00

"Gaby Deslys"

Limited edition serigraph
on artist paper
Numbered and Hand signed

Certificate of authenticity
12 x 17.5 inches (image size)
20 x 26 inches (w/Border)
Retail price: $5,500

Our Price $4,000.00

BiographyEuropean born, Peter was raised in Shanghai, China, where he spent his first ten years. He Born in St. Petersburg, and destined by his father for a military career, Erte 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 twenty two years.

Erte is perhaps best remembered for the gloriously extravagant costumes and stage sets that he designed for the Folies Bergere in Paris, and for George White's Scandals in New York, which exploit to the fullest his taste for the exotic and romantic, as well as his appreciation for the sinuous and lyrical human form. Erte also designed for the opera and traditional theatre, and spent a brief and not wholly satisfying period of time in Hollywood in 1925 at the invitation of Louis B. Mayer, head of Metro Goldwyn Meyer.

Following a period of comparative eclipse during the Second World War and its aftermath, Erte's second career began when he met London art dealer Eric Estorick in 1967. Impressed by the huge body of superb work in theartist's Paris studio, Estorick was determined to re-launch Erte's career. This effort was crowned with spectacular success in New York and London exhibitions of gouache paintings and drawings. As important as the sale of his pictures were, it was the enthusiastic response from many stars of stage, screen, and fashion who had viewed his works that gave the strongest indication of the appreciative audience ready to support the next phase of Erte's artistic career. Indeed, it was the demand for his work, not only by those wealthy enough to afford originals, but also by young people of limited means, which told of a demand that would not be satisfied by the existing works. This led to a decision to create multiples, first of graphics, and later, of bronzed sculptures.

During the twenty five years of Erte's "second career," he achieved a level of fame which rivaled the first, if only for its wider reaching expanses. Those years also saw the publication of many books on Erte's work, including two large format books, "Erte at Ninty," and "Erte at Ninty-Five," as well as one on sculpture, "Erte Sculpture." On his death in 1990, he was hailed as the undisputed "Prince of the Music Hall," and a "Mirror for Fashion for 75 years."