It took Erté decades to complete his naked, somewhat erotic Alphabet – began in the late 1920s and not finished until 1967. All 26 letters are created in individual gouaches on paper, in exotic human form (and later formed print editions). This exhibit was a hit when it was first shown in London in 1967. Earlier that year Erté’s first solo exhibition had been purchased in its entirety by the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. The art critic John Russell remarked: “If Michelangelo came back to earth, he wouldn’t have had more publicity.”
But why did the alphabet take him 40 years to complete? Erté’ explained:
“I started to work on the series of Alphabet paintings in 1927, after a very successful exhibition at the Galerie Charpentier in Paris. This gallery proposed another exhibition two years later for which I had planned to complete Alphabet.
“Unfortunately, I was much too optimistic. I had not realised how much other work I would have to do at the same time. There was my contract with Harper’s Bazaar, and for the theatre, working on three major spectacular productions in two years as well as the usual tableaux for the Folies-Bergére and several operas.
“The result was that in 1929, when my second exhibition opened, Alphabet had not made much progress. From then on, little by little, I did complete one or two letters between various urgent commissions, but it was only forty years later that I finished the set.
“In 1967 I was asked to exhibit Alphabet at an Erté show in London. This time I was ready – or at least I thought I was. While preparing to send the pictures to London, I suddenly noticed to my astonishment that one letter was missing in the series; it was the letter L. I began to paint it immediately and completed it just in time for the show. As it turned out, this letter became the most successful of all in the eyes of the public.’
Erte alphabet- The L
Russian artist Romain de Tirtoff (23 November 1892 – 21 April 1990), became Erté from the French pronunciation of his initials. Scion to an aristocratic family, he moved to Paris against his famaily’s wishes and worked for Paul Poiret from 1913 to 1914. In 1915, he secured his first substantial contract with Harper’s Bazaar magazine, and thus launched an illustrious career that included designing costumes and stage sets. During this time, Erte designed costumes for Mata Hari. Between 1915 and 1937, Erté designed over 200 covers for Harper’s Bazaar, and his illustrations would also appear in such publications as Illustrated London News, Cosmopolitan, Ladies’ Home Journal and Vogue.
In 1925, Louis B. Mayer brought him to Hollywood to design sets and costumes for the silent film Paris. There were many script problems, so Erté was given other assignments to keep him busy. Hence, he designed for such films as Ben-Hur, The Mystic, Time, The Comedian, and Dance Madness. In 1920 he designed the set and costumes for the film The Restless Sex starring Marion Davies and financed by William Randolph Hearst.
See more alphabets to brighten your reading and writing here (NSFW).
Buy Joseph Apoux’s Erotic Alpbabet here – we make prints and cards and more to order so letters so please so you can spell out whatever you like.
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