An Erte Fantasy

March 26, 2022

Find our entire fine art collection. Video Translation: Hi, this is Jennifer with City Farmhouse Antiques and I am here with this week's find of the week. Those of you that have studied art and know your artists are going to know right away who this is by. This is by a very famous artist known as Erte. He was born in Russia and his full name was Romain de Tirtoff. His father wanted him to pursue a military career, but he wanted to become an artist. When he was about 20 years old he moved to Paris and studied there, but to avoid shaming his family since he did not follow his father's wishes he came up with a pseudo name using the R and the T in his original name and became known as Erte. Here is his signature. This is a serigraph or silk printing. These are more valuable because all serigraphs are viewed by the artist and signed off on by the artist like you can see here and they are titled and numbered. The name of this piece is "Stolen Kisses". There were only 300 of these made and this is number 236 out of 300. The plates are then destroyed after the limited number is printed to ensure they remain limited edition sets. Erte was very much into fantasy and this piece really exudes that. I will get closer so you can see what I am talking about. All the detail in his pieces is impeccable. Again, this piece of fine art is titled "Stolen Kisses". The colors to this piece are striking. It has a very deep navy background with beautiful blues, lilac and pink. Every Erte piece tells its own story. I just love his artwork. Erte had a resurrection in his popularity in the 1960's and his pieces can be found today in the Smithsonian, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He designed many bronzes, costume jewelry and even theatre sets during his lifetime. He was known as the father of art deco. What amazes me is that back in the 1920's he would have had these ideas that were so modern, and yet here we are all these years later and his pieces are still considered modern. How he could be so ahead of his time back then is amazing to me. His pieces are definitely works of art and are beautiful in any home decor. This is a substantially large piece. The site are only, and that is just the area you see that is actual art work is about 23 inches by 18 inches. The overall size of the piece is 40 inches by 33 inches so it is a large piece of art. This piece is under glass. This artist is no longer living. He lived to be very old and was 97 years old when he passed in 1990. This is a signed and numbered piece so for all intensive purposes it is fairly one of a kind. This piece will be up on the website at www.cityfarmhouseantiques.com where we have more than just antiques. Be sure and give us a like on Facebook. Subscribe to our newsletter so you can see all of our newest finds and tell us what type of art work you collect. Are you into antique style, the lodge look, southwest style? Would you consider buying an Erte now that you know more about the artist? We will see you next week.