Romain Tirtoff (1892-1990), known as Erté, was a fashion illustrator and stage set designer. This Russian-born French artist established himself as the Father of Art Deco with his groundbreaking designs and lifelong career in fashion. Born Roman Petrovitch TYRTOV (Роман Петрович Тыртов) in Saint Petersburg, into a large family whose roots date back to 1548, he drew his first costume at 5 years old, influenced by his mother "of refined elegance" who inspired him later in his images of "fatal and sinuous" women. He is also fascinated by the Russian and Parisian fashion magazines that his mother had. His father, Admiral Pyotr Ivanovitch TYRTOV, expected his son to continue the family tradition by becoming an officer in the navy. He first studied at the Academy of Saint Petersburg and in the studio of Ilja Yefimovitch REPIN (in 1906). He takes the pseudonyms of "Pitch and Ti"r and publishes fashion sketches in the review "Damskij mir". In 1907, at the age of fifteen, he came to Paris and made some artistic attempts for the masters in place, under the pseudonym Erté. He also produced a silver bronze sculpture, the "Demoiselle à la balancelle", in Art Nouveau style, which was done in ten copies. He moved to Paris in 1910 then to Boulogne-sur-Seine. In 1911, he took courses at the Julian Academy while making fashion designs. In 1912, Romain de TIRTOFF obtains to be sent to Paris to learn the trade of designer. He adopts a pseudonym so as not to "dishonor" his family. He designed his first sets for the presentation of oriental type ball gowns for the great fashion designer Paul POIRET, then the sets for the play "Le Minaret" in 1913 for the theater director Jacques RICHEPIN. His career is launched. He also draws in Indian ink for the Gazette du Bon Ton. In 1915, he obtained his first major contract, which would last twenty-two years, with Harper's Bazaar magazine, and then led a successful career in costume and stage design. He worked for Harper's Bazar from 1915 until becoming a symbol of this magazine, but also for Vogue. Ruined during the 1929 crisis, he reduced his claims. In conflict with editor Carmel SNOW, his contract with Harper's Bazar ends. He is replaced in the magazine by Cassandre. Erté made his first stage costumes for the Renaissance theater in Paris and for the dancer Mata Hari. Her costumes and sets can be found in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1923. In 1925, Louis B. Mayer took him to Hollywood to design the sets and costumes for the film "Paris" by Edmund Goulding. Also for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he collaborates with "Ben-Hur", "The Mystic", "Time, the Comedian" and "Dance Madness" by Robert Z. Leonard and "La Bohème" by King Vidor. In the 1930s, he designed costumes for several shows of the Folies Bergère and the George White's Scandals in New York. Erté worked all his life for magazines, ballets and operas but his career ended somewhat with the Second World War. He also decorated lofts, such as that of Folie’s Pigalle.