Fan-bearing slave girl, Legendary Kings 

Erte made this gouache and ink drawing, entitled "Fan-bearing slave girl", which featured in the Legendary Kings Suite. With its sinuous lines and stylized figure, the image evokes the luxury and extravagance of the Art Deco era. As an artist, Erte worked across a wide range of media from fashion design to set and costume design, and we might think about the social context that would allow an artist to move between these different categories. Erte's career coincided with the rise of consumer culture and mass media. He worked for magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, and this artwork, with its echoes of ancient civilizations, could be seen as an illustration designed to appeal to the aspirational desires of a wealthy readership. Understanding Erte's illustrations requires us to look at magazines and other printed materials from the period. These sources provide a richer understanding of the social and institutional forces that shaped artistic production during the early twentieth century.