Rubinstein, Ida Lvovna

Ida Lvovna Rubinstein was born in Kharkov on September 21 (October 3, according to a new style) in 1883 (according to an entry in the metric book of the Kharkov Choral Synagogue , whose trustees were Ida’s father and grandfather) in the family of the hereditary honorary citizen Lev Ruvimovich (Leon Romanovich) Rubinstein and his wife Ernestines Isaakovna.

Belonged to one of the richest families in southern Russia. Grandfather of Ida, Reuben (Roman) Osipovich Rubinstein - founder of the banking house "Roman Rubinstein and Sons." Ida’s father, Leo (Leon) and his brother Adolf engaged in wholesale trade, mainly sugar, owned four banks, three sugar factories, they also owned the New Bavaria brewery. The Rubinsteins family spent large sums on charity, on supporting a religious community, on the cultural development of Kharkov. Leon and Adolf Rubinsteins were well-educated people, stood at the origins of the Kharkov branch of the Russian Musical Society, and Kharkov intelligentsia regularly gathered in their homes. They were friends with the Moscow merchant family of the Alekseevs, in particular, with K. S. Stanislavsky (real surname Alekseev). Ida's uncle, Adolf Ruvimovich, was awarded four orders for creating an orphanage and the largest hospital in Kharkov. Ida's cousin, Joseph Adolfovich Rubinstein, was the owner of several private houses in Kharkov ^[8] .

In 1888, at the age of three, she lost her mother, in 1892 - her father; after his death, he inherited his colossal state, which determined her future life. After the death of her father, she remained in the care of her uncle, Adolf Ruvimovich, after his death in 1894 she moved to Petersburg, where she was under the care of her older (cousin) sister, Sofia Adolfovna Gorvits (wife of Mikhail Abramovich Gorvits, 1846-1895, son of the merchant of the first guild Abram Isaevich Horvitsa and nephew of Professor Martyn Isaevich Horvits ).

She studied at the St. Petersburg private gymnasium L. S. Tagantseva (Mokhovaya St., d. 27-29) ^[9] , graduating from it in 1901. She took lessons from the history of Russian literature from Professor A. L. Pogodin ^[10] .

She began her stage career early on April 16, 1904, performing under the pseudonym Lydia Lvovskaya in the play “Antigone” (a private play by Ida Rubinstein. The New Theater of L. B. Yavorsky. Production by Yu. E. Ozarovsky ), designed by L. Bakst. The performance was the only time marking the beginning of a long collaboration with L. Bakst, and was staged by I. L. Rubinstein at his own expense. Critics noted the "student" play of the actress, her "poor diction, inexpressive harsh voice."

In the fall of 1904, she entered drama courses at the Imperial Maly Theater , and completed them in 1907. In 1907-1908 she took private dance lessons from M. Fokin.

In 1909, she married banker Vladimir Isaakovich Horowitz, but the marriage broke up immediately after the honeymoon.

In 1908, at her own expense, I. L. Rubinstein prepared the production of Oscar Wilde ’s drama “ Salome ” ( 1909 ) to the music of Alexander Glazunov , in the design of L. Bakst. The performance was announced (as a private performance by I. Rubinstein) at the Mikhailovsky Theater , November 3, 1908, but did not take place. It was partially performed later at the Evening Dance Party in the Great Hall of the St. Petersburg Conservatory on December 20, 1908, staged by V.E. Meyerhold and choreography by Mikhail Fokin . M. Fokin was interested in this production by Rubinstein: “she presented interesting material from which I hoped to create a special stage image”. At evening, Ida Rubinstein performed the Dance of Seven Veils , unfolding heavy brocade bedspreads one after another in a plastic dance. At the end of the dance, the dancer was left with a dress entirely decorated with rows of colored beads, stitched according to the sketch of L. Bakst .

In 1909-1911 she danced in the Russian Ballet by Sergei Diaghilev . For the first time she performed as part of the Diaghilev enterprise on June 2, 1909 in Paris, on the stage of the Chatelet Theater, making her debut along with Anna Pavlova , Vaclav Nizhinsky and Tamara Karsavina in the ballet of Cleopatra by Mikhail Fokin . On June 4, 1910 , together with Vaclav Nizhinsky, she participated in the premiere of Fokine’s ballet “ Scheherazade ”.

The roles of Cleopatra and Zobeida were the best in the entire stage career of the artist, her unsurpassed success. The artist was unusually tall, but her angular plasticity and deliberately stingy gestures were successful with the public and critics who wrote about “the flexibility of the snake and the plasticity of a woman”, about Rubinstein’s “voluptuous petrified grace”. The unique image created by the artist was preserved in her further works. The last time Ida Rubinstein danced Zobeide on May 4, 1919 at the Grand Opera at a charity evening in favor of Russian refugees who suffered from the Bolsheviks.

In 1911, having parted with Diaghilev, she created her own troupe. Her first production is the drama The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian ( d'Annunzio and Debussy , 1911 ), which premiered on May 22, 1911, in Paris, at the Chatelet Theater. The archbishop of Paris was outraged that the role of Saint Sebastian , a Catholic saint, written by d'Annunzio specifically for Rubinstein, was played by a woman, and besides, an Orthodox Jew. The play, and especially the play and recitation by Rubinstein, who had previously acted as a dancer, had no success with the public and critics.

Criticism noted that Ms. Rubinstein, unlike Diaghilev and other successful entrepreneurs, "spends money not on art, but only on herself."

On June 10, 1912, a new premiere of the troupe took place at the Chatelet Theater - the drama "Salome" based on a play by Oscar Wilde to music by A. Glazunov, staged by A. Sanin. In the play, Rubinstein again performed the Salome dance, set for her by M. Fokin.

In 1912, A. Sanin directed the drama “Elena Spartan” ( French: Helene de Sparte , E. Verharn / Deodat de Severac), designed by L. Bakst. Ida Rubinstein played the main role.

In the eighth of the Russian seasons, in 1913, at the Chatelet Theater in Paris, Vsevolod Meyerhold staged the play "Pisanella, or Fragrant Death" d'Annunzio , where she played the main role, the role of the courtesan Pisanella. The performance, designed by Bakst, was considered “the most stylish spectacle created by the troupe. The “crazy luxury” ... of this performance, which cost 450 thousand francs, might have seemed annoying and excessive, but on the whole the magnificent and spicy Pisanella was sustained from beginning to end in the aesthetics of modernity. D'Annunzio corrected the “mistakes” of “Sebastian” and adapted the play about the holy harlot to the personality of Rubinstein. Pisanella spoke little and often froze in mournful poses, but other characters in long monologues endlessly praised her beauty. ” ^[eleven]

Russian critics saw in the play “like everything that Rubinstein does,“ staged debauchery, ”the decomposition of a theater in which everything is bought and sold, the triumph of a“ mediocre, ingenious, poisonous blot of amateurish antics. ” ^[eleven]

In the 1910s she moved to live in Paris, where she acquired a mansion, also decorated by L. Bakst. She was friends with Sarah Bernhardt , Marc Chagall , Jean Cocteau , Andre Gide , Vaclav Nizhinsky . Being a bisexual woman ^[12] , in 1911-1914 she was in a relationship with the artist Romaine Brooks .

In 1928, Bronislava Nizhinsky gathered for the production of I. Rubinstein (in partnership with A. Vilzak) an international ballet troupe. It included choreographers L. Myasin, M. Fokin, K. Joss, artist A. Benoit. Among the works of Onegger composed by special order (“Joan of Arc at the stake”, by P. Claudel , “Amphion”, 1929; “Semiramis”, 1934), M. Ravel (“ Bolero ” 1928, “ Waltz ”) ), Stravinsky (“ Kiss of the Fairy ” 1928, “ Persephone ”) 1934, Iber (“The Wandering Knight”).

As part of this troupe, Ida Rubinstein participated in ballet productions. In 1933, M. Fokin was invited to the troupe, staging The Semiramis of Onegger, designed for Rubinstein's recitation.

The troupe existed before the 1938 season and closed due to the impending war. The last time Rubinstein took to the stage in 1938 in the Onegger oratorio "Joan of Arc at the stake."

In 1934, the French government awarded I. Rubinstein the Legion of Honor .

In 1935, I. Rubinstein received French citizenship.

In 1938, fearing the arrival of the Germans, Ida Rubinstein, as a Jew, was forced to leave France. After the occupation of France, Ida Rubinstein lived in London, where she organized a hospital for French and English soldiers.

In 1945 she returned to France.

In 1946 she moved from Judaism to Catholicism. The last ten years she lived in the city of Vence , in the south of France, in the company of her secretary, Mrs. Rainier, and all alone ^[13] .

She died on September 20, 1960 in her mansion. Fulfilling the wills of Ida Rubinstein, no one was informed about her death, nor about the date and place of the funeral, and on the monument you can see only the initials - IR ^[14]

The stylish image of the “decadent diva” by Ida Rubinstein inspired many artists - Kees van Dongen , Antonio de la Gandara , Andre de Segonzak , Leon Bakst . In 1911-1914, several of her portraits were painted by the American artist Romaine Brooks who lived in Paris ^[15] .

In 1910 , in Paris, Valentin Serov asked Ida Rubinstein to pose for him for a portrait. Soon after its creation, the work was purchased from the author and transferred to the collection of the Russian Museum , in 1911 it was exhibited at the Moscow exhibition “ World of Art ”. The picture was met with ambiguity: for example, the wanderer Ilya Repin called it “a decadent market”. Valentin Serov painted his model on the same plane with the background, creating an image resembling Egyptian frescoes. The artist talked about the portrait, that his model "looks into Egypt." Olga Valentinovna Serova, daughter of the painter, wrote in her memoirs:

Ida Rubinstein was not at all as thin as dad portrayed her, apparently, he consciously stylized her.

- O. V. Serova / Memories of my father, Valentin Alexandrovich Serov. L.: Art, 1986, p. 152

Ida Rubinstein once starred in the movie - in the film "The Ship" ( 1921 ), based on the drama of Gabriele d'Annunzio.

The collection of historical costume of fashion historian Alexander Vasiliev contains two dresses of the 1930s from the wardrobe of Ida Rubinstein.

• De Cossart M. Ida Rubinstein (1885-1960): a theatrical life. Liverpool: Liverpool UP, 1987
• Depaulis J. Ida Rubinstein: une inconnue jadis célèbre. Paris: H. Champion, 1995
• Woolf V. Dancing in the vortex: the story of Ida Rubinstein. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic; Abingdon: Marston, 2000
• Bentley T. Sisters of Salome. New Haven: Yale UP, 2002, p. 129-165

• The photo
• Ida Rubinstein at the “To Remember” Bibliographic Resource
• Michael R. Evans. Ida Rubinstein.
• Bible story. Dance of the Seven Veils (Ida Rubinstein) on the Culture Channel

Image in Art

• Antonio de la Gandara. Portrait of Ida Rubinstein, 1913
• Romain Brooks. Sad Venus
• Romain Brooks. Portrait of Ida Rubinstein, 1917