








images that haunt us
Erté (Romain De Tirtoff, Russian/French, 1892-1990) color serigraph on paper with silver, gold, and red foil embossing titled “Kiss of Fire” from the artist’s Love and Passion Suite, numbered 61/300, published circa 1983. Depicts a partially nude male and a female couple in profile standing on a gold surface and dressed in red, orange, and purple flowing garments and headdresses reminiscent of flames, their arms resting on each other’s shoulders, against a black background with a black circular pattern embossed above. Numbered in white pencil, lower left below image, signed “Erte” in white pencil, lower right below image. | quoted from Case Fine Arts & Antiques
This publisher’s proof depicts the Queen of the Night from “The Magic Flute” opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with four attendants holding the hem of her elaborate gown against a black background, surrounded on the left, bottom, and right edges by a gold star border. Numbered, in chalk, lower left, signed “Erté”, in chalk, lower right. Merrill Chase, Chicago, IL, gallery label, en verso. Housed under glass in a giltwood frame with a black linen liner with a giltwood fillet. Property of Milligan University, Milligan, Tennessee. source: Case Antique / Case Auctions
[*] production stills probably from the film Forbidden Fruit (Cecil B. DeMille, 1921). In the film Rambova (b. Winifred Shaughnessy), along with Mitchell Leisen, was the costume designer and Struss the cinematographer.
In 1915, Alexandra Rebikova began to star in the movies of the film company “A. Khanzhonkov and Co.” [Торгового дома «А. Ханжонков и К°] and very soon became one of the leading silent film actresses.