Erté (Romain de Tirtoff) (1892-1990)
Le Printemps, 1956
Original gouache on paper heightened with gold, signed in ballpoint pen, with registration number and title in pen on the reverse, and blue inkstamp inscription 'Composition Originale ERTE Roman de Tirtoff,' the full sheet.
sheet 14 7/8 x 10 5/8in (37 x 27cm)
Footnotes:
Provenance
Erté (Romain de Tirtoff)
Hélène Martini, Paris

Hélène de Cressac Martini (1924–2017) was a French striptease artist turned businesswoman and nightclub owner who, at one time, owned a string of cabarets, including the Folies Bergère. She was affectionately known by Parisians as the 'Queen of the Night'. In 1954, she asked Erté to design costumes for herself and her performers. Hélène and Erté became close friends, and he left her his entire collection of his most prized works on paper, including this gouache.

Sheet soiled, mostly in the margins, with smudges and a notation in pen in the upper left corner recto, repaired tear in the upper left corner of sheet and a repaired diagonal tear and crease on the lower right corner, soft horizontal crease along center, not extending across the sheet, smudges and scufffs, visible in raking light.

With pen inscription describing a style element of the costume: 'Les deux jambes l'ouvert de bas en haut' the two legs (of the pants) open from bottom to top).