PARIS.- On 6 and 13 November, auction house
Marc-Arthur Kohn will disperse the interior of a castle located near Paris whose decor was designed in the 1950-60s by Roman de TIRTOFF (1892-1990), also known as Erté. Celebrated for his fashion sketches, costume designs, magazine issues and theater, music-hall and opera sets, he also put his creativity at the service of personalities and interiors like this very one.
Born in Saint Petersburg in an aristocrat family, Erté grew up during the last years of tsarist Russia. In 1912, aged 15, during the golden age of Russian ballets, he moved to Paris to study drawing. He chose the pseudonym of Erté as a reference to the French pronunciation of his initials (R.T.).
As soon as 1915, he signs his first contract as a designer for Harpers Bazaar magazine. This collaboration with the magazine, a major fashion influencer of the early century, lasts over twenty years.
At the same time, during the 20s, he begins creating costumes and sets for theaters, magazines, ballets and operas. He creates exotic costumes and jewelry for American actors and moved on to extravagant sets for the greatest New-York music-halls before working in Hollywood.
He comes back to France in 1930 after important issues generated by 1929 crisis and pursued his career in the theater industry, the Folies Bergère being one of his clients.
As a multidisciplinary artist, he dedicates himself from the 60s to sculpture and painting. He handles aluminum, iron, copper and wood to shape fantastic and abstract artworks.
The last two decades of his life were led by exhibitions and publications on his life. His work influenced the Art Deco movement and reflects the aesthetic of the years 1910-1930 and influenced the 20th centurys style and design.
Marc-Arthur Kohns auction brings to light the talent of the artist for design. Cave furniture, inspired by shells and submarine vegetation, furniture made out of horn and antlers celebrating nature and hunting rituals, furniture and decorative elements entirely recovered with shells, leather upholstered cupboards. This house illustrates the connection between an extravagant collector and an artist fitted with a fanciful and eccentric spirit. Estimates range from 2,000 and 50,000.