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Romain de Tirtoff Erte
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| • Nationality: French |
| • Roles: Artist, Designer, Sculptor, Draftsman, Graphiste, Décorateur, Peintre, Sculpteur, Dessinateur |
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Romain de Tirtoff Erte |
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Paris, the ville lumiere, does not attract me by its ephemeral pleasures, by its nocturnal attractions, dear only to the foreigners and passing travelers. There is another lumiere in Paris which draws within its rays every artist, every soul athirst for beauty and elegance. This season, as usual, there have been in Paris quantities of artistic exhibitions and interesting theatrical representations.
My short stay in Paris did not allow me to see all I should have liked to see, but I came back with the certainty that Paris is not dead because of the war, that it is still alive and active in all the artistic researches. All sorts of exhibitions, which began with the Dutch and Ingres and ended with the Futurists and Dadaists, show that artistic Paris, reaching in its researches the limit of possibility and even to the caricature of art, does not disdain the examples of immortal beauty from olden times.
The Parisian taste is supple and tolerant in art as in politics. Republican Paris greets with enthusiasm the passing foreign royalties; artistic Paris admires the futuristic monstrosities, and remains open-mouthed before the beauty of Ingres' drawings.
It is a strange or, perhaps, logical thing that in the same exhibition hall where the futurist artists' works were hung, the same manager organized another exhibition of drawings from children aged from six to ten years. One certainly can not deny that the "wonder child" has a right to existence, but I do not remember that in the world of painting there has. been any "wonder child." Painting is the most difficult art, for besides genius it requires a developed technique. It is nearly impossible that a child of six years old, even extraordinarily gifted, could have technique of any sort.
Every child, boy or girl, trying to find an opening for its childish imagination, will draw on the margins of its copy-books, but very few of these children have become artists. The manager of the Futurists is going to present to the Parisian public these drawings as masterpieces and as a revelation in the world of drawing. And this exhibition will take place not far from the exhibition of Ingres, the unquestionable master of the pencil. If such exhibitions are attended by the public, that does not yet prove that the visitors must really like such works. They go there out of curiosity, just as one goes to the Zoological Gardens and stops in front of the toad that spits at one, or in front of the monkeys that throw on one the remains of their food.
"The best barometers of the artistic taste of the public are the sales of pictures and works of art. Recently, I had the opportunity to admire the works of Hubert Robert before they were passed on to the auction rooms. Amongst his pictures two particularly drew the attention. They were the precious documents of the great period preceding and preparatory to the Revolution. These two works of art represent in the intimacy of her "home," Mme. Geoffrin, celebrated for her wit, her connections, and her political salon, where the greatest men of that period met.
These pictures are of an unquestionable historical interest, besides being exquisite works of art, and should have been put in one of the national museums. However, they have been bought by a private individual for a very high price. Hubert Robert's other pictures have also been sold at very high prices. That proves that the amateurs of the beautiful have not disappeared because of the Futurist, Cubist and Dadaist propaganda of ideas. Sometimes these ideas are beautiful but too often they are realized in forms grotesque and contrary to beauty.
With its museums, its exhibitions, its art sales, Paris always remains the center of art in Europe. Paris also remains the center of elegance, and will not yield its place to any other capital. Only one must own that often researches in the world of elegance are akin to the ridiculous. This hunt for the "new line" which has been spoken of for years and years always irritates me very much.
A theatre manager in Paris asked me to find a new "line" for the modern dresses of a play which he is going to produce next season, so as to be able to inaugurate a new "uniform" fashion. I refused, of course.
A lady, two ladies, hundreds of ladies ask me, "What new line will be in Vogue magazine next season?" And to all of them I answer, "Look at Harper's Bazaar; you will see that I create personal individual fashions and not uniform! It is a great dressmaking firm that will give you news of the 'new line!'"
But from inquiries made near a few Paris couturiers, the problem of the "new line" is already settled. One has only to go back to the fashions of Louis XIV and Louis XV and to begin again to wear stays. So the artistic imagination will be carried back to zero, and one will only have to copy the toilettes of mannequins in the Museum of Historical Costumes or even from the post cards representing the portraits and pictures of masters of olden days. Then, when one wears this historical uniform, one will have also to wear stays.
Why? Because one can not hide that truth that it is easier to dress a mannequin that makes studied movements than to dress a lady of the world who lives, and sometimes moves, naturally.
It is, of course, still easier to dress a wax mannequin and apparently there are those who would like to see part of the female body hardened and seemingly deprived of life by stays. I do not wish to make remarks on this genial idea which wants to introduce the corset in the feminine toilet. But I find ridiculous this going back two centuries in the world of fashion.
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Erté - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Autumn 1921.
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