Ida Rubinstein (1883-1960) was a famous Russian ballerina, actress, patron and Belle Époque figure.
As an idol of the fin de siècle, she was renowned for her beauty, mimetic powers and enormous wealth. She was a significant patron and she tended to commission works that suited her abilities, works that mixed dance with drama and stagecraft.
She was born in Kharkiv (Ukraine) and was orphaned at an early age. The family was wealthy, cultured and Russified, a merchant-banking clan that had moved up the social ranks; her father’s title, Hereditary Honorary Citizen, conferred gentry status.
She made her debut in 1908 in a private performance of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé. The part brought her to the attention of Serge Diaghilev (1872–1929), who included her in the earliest Paris seasons of his celebrated Ballets Russes.
She was not in the top tier of ballerinas; she began her training too late for that to have been a possibility. Because of her limited dance training, she was cast in “mime” roles such as Cleopatra (1909) and Ta-Hor in Schéhérazade (1910), which capitalized on her dark, exotic looks and stunning stage presence. Both ballets were choreographed by Fokine, and designed by Léon Bakst. Her partner in Scherazade was the great Nijinsky. Rubinstein left the Ballets Russes in 1911.
By the 1920s she had become a grande dame of the French theatre. In 1928 Rubinstein formed her own dance company, using her inherited wealth, and commissioned several lavish productions. Her last performance was 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. She later returned to France, living finally at Les Olivades at Vence, where she lived in strict seclusion, reading the Bible and occasionally visiting the Abbey of Cîteaux. She died in 1960 and was buried nearby.
Ida Rubinstein, 1912 via
Ida Rubinstein via
Ida Rubinstein, Antoine and Cleopatre, 1920 via
Ida Rubinstein in the Ballets Russes production of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Scheharazade’, 1910 via
Ida Rubinstein, 1922 via
Ida Rubinstein with a baby leopard by Otto Wegener, via
Ida Rubinstein by Otto Wegener, via
Ida Rubinstein by Otto Wegener, via
Ida Rubinstein, 1920s via
FROM THE BYGONE 
