ERTÉ. [ROMAIN DE TIRTOFF.] "Décor de Laideronnette." Set design for "Laideronnette, impératrice des pagodes," the third movement of Maurice Ravel's ballet La Mère L'Oye" (Mother Goose) from the 1949 stage production. Gouache on paper. 254x254 mm; 10x10 inches. Signed "Erté" in lower right image, additionally titled and numbered 8573 in his hand on verso. Framed.
Erté designed the costumes and set design for the 1949 ballet production of Ravel's celebrated work which draws upon the fairy tales of Charles Perrault. This detailed and luminous illustration features the main character from the third movement of the ballet. Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas, is a Chinese princess who has been cursed with horrible ugliness and wanders for years with her only companion, an equally ugly green serpent. They are shipwrecked in the island of the pagodas and the little porcelain people take her as their queen. Eventually, she marries the serpent and they are both transformed into a beautiful princess and handsome prince.
![ERTÉ. [ROMAIN DE TIRTOFF.] Décor de Laideronnette.](https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/full//721\769721.jpg)
