Ida Lvovna Rubinstein (; – 20 September 1960) was a Russian dancer, actress, art patron and Belle Époque figure. She performed with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes from 1909 to 1911 and later formed her own company. Boléro by Ravel (1928) was among her commissions.
Biography
Early life and family
Rubinstein was born into one of Russian Empire's richest families,
Ida's grandfather, Ruvim (Roman) Rubinstein, had been a successful sugar trader in Kharkov. He moved to Saint Petersburg, where he founded the company Roman Rubinstein & Sons with his two sons, Lev (Leon) and Adolf (Anton). The family multiplied their investment many times over, becoming millionaires by the time Ida was born. The family expanded to own several banks, including the First Bank of Kharkov, sugar mills and breweries.
Rubinstein companies
thumb|upright 0.8|Rubinstein as [[St. Sebastian in the play Le Martyre de saint Sébastien, 1911]]
After leaving the Ballets Russes, Rubinstein formed her own dance company, using her inherited wealth, and commissioned several lavish productions. In 1911, she performed in Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien. The creative team was Michel Fokine (choreography); Bakst (design); Gabriele d'Annunzio (text) and score by Debussy. This was both a triumph for its stylized modernism and a scandal; the Archbishop of Paris prohibited Catholics from attending because St. Sebastian was being played by a woman and a Jew.
After the First World War, Rubinstein appeared in a number of plays, and in Staat's Istar at the Paris Opera in 1924. She also played the leading role in the 1921 silent film La Nave (film) based on D'Annunzio's play of the same name and directed by his son.
thumb|Rubinstein in 1922|upright 0.8|left
Between 1928 and 1929, she directed her own company in Paris with Nijinska as choreographer. She commissioned and performed in Maurice Ravel's Boléro in 1928. Other works developed in 1928 were Massine's David, with music by Sauguet; and Le Baiser de la fée, with music by Stravinsky, and choreography by Nijinska. The repertoire also included The Firebird (L'Oiseau de Feu) with music by Stravinsky, and choreography by Michel Fokine; this had been one of the most sensational creations for the Ballets Russes. The company was revived in 1931 and 1934, with new works. She closed the company in 1935, and gave her last performance in the play Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher in Paris, 1939.
In 1940, she left France during the German invasion, and made her way to England via Algeria and Morocco. There she helped wounded Free French soldiers until 1944. Walter Guinness (later Lord Moyne), her long-term lover and sponsor, remained supportive, providing a suite at the Ritz Hotel, until he was assassinated by the Stern Gang in late 1944. She returned to France after the war, living finally at the villa Les Olivades in Vence.
Rubinstein lived the final 10 years of her life in relative quiet. She died in 1960 in Vence, France, and is buried nearby.
Images and paintings
Mme Ida Rubinstein, by [[Léon Bakst|thumb|upright 0.8|left]]
thumb|Ida Rubenstein as portrayed by [[Romaine Brooks]]
thumb|upright 1.2|Portrait of Ida Rubinstein, 1913 by [[Antonio de La Gándara.]]
Rubinstein was much celebrated in art. Her portrait by Valentin Serov in 1910 marks the most complete realization of his mature style. The Art Deco sculptor Demetre Chiparus produced a Rubinstein figurine, and she was also painted by Antonio de la Gandara and Jacques-Émile Blanche. Costume designer Léon Bakst created numerous images of Rubinstein in various roles. Rubinstein did not like long sittings and earned the reputation of being a difficult subject. For this reason, Blanche and others preferred to work from photographs.
Rubinstein was bisexual, and in 1911 she began a three-year affair with the painter Romaine Brooks, who created several striking portraits, including some of the dancer in the nude, e.g. for La Venus triste. Brooks' portraits were based on "an extraordinary series of photographs taken by Brooks at the time".
Brooks explained Rubinstein's allure to her audiences and artists as follows:
<blockquote>It was Ida Rubinstein's elusive quality that fascinated. She expressed an inner self that had no particular denomination. Her beauty belonged to those mental images that demand manifestation, and whatever period she represented she became its image. In reality she was the crystallization of a poet's image, a painter's vision, and as such she possessed further significance ... It was her gift for impersonating the beauty of every époque, that marked Ida Rubinstein as unique.