He worked in several fields, including fashion, jewellery, graphic arts, costume, set design for film, theatre, and opera, and interior decor.

Tirtoff was born Roman Petrovich Tyrtov (Роман Петрович Тыртов) in Saint Petersburg, to a distinguished family with roots tracing back to 1548, to a Tatar khan named Tyrt.

[3][4][5] The decision to move to Paris was made despite strong objections from his father, who wanted Romain to continue the family tradition and become a naval officer.

His costumes, programme designs, and sets were featured in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1923, many productions of the Folies Bergère, Bal Tabarin, Théâtre Fémina, Le Lido,[8] and George White's Scandals.

[11] Two years before his death, Erté created seven limited edition bottle designs for Courvoisier to show the different stages of the cognac-making process, from distillation to maturation.

[12] In 2008, the eighth and final set of the remaining Erte-designed Courvoisier bottles, containing Grande Champagne cognac dating back to 1892, was released and sold for $10,000 apiece.