Romain de Tirtoff, known as Erté (1892-1990), was a Russian fashion illustrator and stage set designer, a master of the Art Deco style.

Romain de Tirtoff was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, on November 23, 1892, of an aristocratic, musical family loyal to the tsar. His father descended from a Tartar Khan named Tirt and ranked as an admiral in the Imperial Naval School. The noble de Tirtoff family had always followed naval careers since Peter the Great. His mother was also an aristocrat of Cossack descent; one of her brothers, Nicholas, was military governor of St. Petersburg. Rimsky-Korsakov, the Russian composer, was one of the friends of the family.

Romain's idea of feminine beauty, throughout his long life, was the pale skin and dark eyes and hair of his mother. He was already designing clothes for her at the age of five, aided by the family's resident dressmaker...