Paris. The year is 1910. The whole French capital is crazy about Diaghilev's seasons. Impulsive Parisians have already heard Russian operas, with our ingenious singers, with amazing scenery. The turn of ballets has come. The Parisians are conquered by the productions of Mikhail Fokin, so innovative, they are shocked by the costumes and scenery created by our best artists, but most of all they amaze A. Pavlova and V. Nizhinsky, T. Karsavina and I. Rubinshtein. Soon, the great V. Serov will create an unforgettable poster with A. Pavlova and write a portrait of Ida Rubinstein.
Brief family information
Ida Lvovna Rubinshtein (1885-1960) was born in a wealthy family in Kharkov. Not one generation of Rubinsteins lived in it. Many, including her father, were honorary citizens of this city. Grandfather founded a banking house. Father and her uncle owned three sugar refineries, they wholesale. At their New Bavaria brewery, beer was brewed and sold throughout the country. In four banks they owned, large-scale cash transactions were carried out. Having huge incomes, they did not forget about charity.
The brothers regularly provided money to support the Jewish community and synagogue. They were engaged in patronage of arts and created the “Russian Musical Society” in Kharkov. K.S. loved to visit their house. Stanislavsky, who comes from a wealthy family of Russian industrialists. But no one knew which portrait of Ida Rubinstein would be painted.
short biography
When little Ida was five years old, Ernestina Isaakovna, her mother, died. Two years later, she became an orphan, because her father, Lev Ruvimovich, also died. A huge fortune fell on the child. Her uncle became her guardian. But he did not live long. For only two years he survived his brother.
The nine-year-old girl was taken to her elder cousin to Petersburg. It was also a very wealthy family. They loved and spoiled the orphan, but did not forget that she should be taught. Subsequently, Ida Lvovna was fluent in four languages. In St. Petersburg, Ida graduated from high school. She grew up with a bright unusual appearance, was tall and thin. Ida simply asked for a photo, but later a portrait of Ida Rubinstein will be painted.
Ida herself dreamed of a career as an actress and made an attempt to play a major role in the play "Antigone". But critics gave negative reviews about the aspiring actress. Then she persuaded Mikhail Fokin to give her private lessons. He was skeptical of this, because they didn’t come to ballet so late. However, the girl’s persistence broke all the barriers. So she came to the ballet. Yes, not in any, but in the most modern, about which everyone says "going upstream". And the role she “knocked out” herself shocked everyone. Fokine literally blinded an incredible image from the debutant. She first performed in public in the "Dance of the seven bedspreads."
The first sensation
Not at all shy, the dancer came out to the public only in beads and seven heavy brocade blankets hiding her long narrow body from head to toe. Leon Bakst drew a sketch for her dress. Now we would call it striptease. But then this word was not even mentioned. Fading spectators watched as with wizarding sweet movements the bedspreads were dropped one after another, and in the end only rows of colored beads remained on the dancer.
Fascinated movements full of passion. When Ida froze in the last step, the audience was silently stunned. And then a storm of enthusiasm arose. She was not released for a long time. I had to repeat almost half the dance. Her image, so seductive, will excite in the 21st century, and a sculptural portrait of Ida Rubinstein will appear. This erotic, full of talent, will become her corporate identity.
Paris with Diaghilev
Pupil M. Fokina Sergei Diaghilev took to Paris. Even among brilliant professionals, she was not lost. The choreographic data, guessed by Mikhail Fokin, were fully disclosed, amazed by the sophisticated Parisian audience, which they could not see. Shocked Debussy wrote for her "Martyrdom of St. Sebastian." And friend Romaine Brooks, an American artist, painted several of her portraits in the image of St. Sebastian.
This lady was, like Ida, very wealthy and could afford to live in the fashionable sixteenth district. Mournful at first, and then turning into a whirlwind “Bolero” much later, in 1928, Maurice Ravel will write for Ida. Igor Stravinsky will present Persephone ballet to an incomparable diva, and Valentin Serov - a portrait of Ida Rubinstein.
Arrival of Valentin Serov in France
Valentin Alexandrovich arrived in Paris with his eldest daughter Olga. And, of course, they went to the Grand Opera, where the troupe of Sergei Diaghilev gave ballets. Everyone who saw her in those years fell under the charm of Ida Rubinstein. She leaves no one indifferent. Ida was volatile and unpredictable. She could fill the dance with snake plastic or broken graphic lines.
Mikhail Fokin found them in Egyptian images. In bas-reliefs. He forced his dancers and dancers to study the art of Ancient Egypt, staged dances so that the dancer repeated the drawings of bas-reliefs, becoming sideways to the audience. The dancer became flat, as if two-dimensional. The task was to convey the aroma of Egypt in Cleopatra.
Ida with Semitic features, a large mouth, a nose with a hump, matte skin without blush, a halo of heavy dark hair on her head looked like a resident of Assyria or Babylon. The figure, honed by daily exercises at the machine tool, was modern, and his face led into ancient times. Such it will be created in the picture. Portrait of Ida Rubinstein Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov will write in 1910.
Scheherazade
For the first time, Valentin Serov saw Ida Rubinstein in the Scheherazade of N. Rimsky-Korsakov. The ingenious Mikhail Fokin staged not oriental languid dances, but a drama where actions and feelings were expressed by movements. Shakhriyar, leaving, leaves his harem and beloved main wife Zobeida.
She is dancing Ida Rubinstein. She was seriously angry at this departure. The ballerina expressed anger in one mean move. She abruptly turned away from her husband, who came up to her for a kiss. And the next moment she was trembling, waiting for her lover. How impatient and passionate! She painted the image with the most economical means, extremely succinctly. One pose. Nervous turn of the head.
Ida thought through and felt every line. Upon returning, the shah found out about the betrayal and ordered that all his wives be killed. But he can not at all order to kill his beloved Zobeida. Passion and love, anger and despair rage in him: his main wife, the most beloved, Zobeida, cheated on him with a black slave.
A bloody massacre is taking place before her eyes. She is motionless. She is stately. Death came very close to her. But horror and fear are unknown to her. There is not a single movement. She froze like a stone statue. She herself raised to the top, where she is not subject to death. Such, with honed movements, full of undercurrent, V. Serov saw her. With excitement, Valentin Alexandrovich plunged into the magical world of an oriental fairy tale, where fingers and toes sparkled decorated with rings, and L. Bakst’s bright costumes worried the imagination, as if suggesting that they could be removed. Of course, you need to write this unusual young woman. Permission for the portrait of Ida Rubinstein Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov received quickly.
In the artist’s workshop
For work, Valentin Serov chose the house church of Chatel Catholic Monastery on Disabled Boulevard. There he rented a house and equipped a workshop there. All the tenants looked out of the windows when Ida Rubinstein was walking in the courtyard. The portrait of Serov, not yet written, was already of interest due to such a spectacular model.
She came with a maid who helped her undress. The artist was afraid that in the old stone room for his model it would be cold. But the "mimosa" was not afraid. Session after session immovably nude sat Ida Rubinstein. The portrait of Serov has already begun to come to life.
Having made sketches, the artist stopped and thought about taking oil or tempera. He stopped at a matte tempera, and the brilliance, bright splashes of colored rings on his hands and feet illuminated with oil.
Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov, picture: portrait of Ida Rubinstein
Putting drawing boards on the stools placed, Serov threw a blue cloth on them. He planted nature with his back to himself. Reliance on the hands that form the isosceles triangle. And the longest legs are entwined with a green scarf.
If you look carefully, one more triangle is visible in the composition. The legs and body are twisted, as in a yoga pose. But the ballerina is not difficult. Her flexible, slender body will take on any given pose that will reveal this marvelous bodiless flesh. So began the artist's portrait of Ida Rubinstein. He was afraid that she would not stand his gaze, which penetrates the very essence of nature. But Ida was impassive. Drawing a portrait of Ida Rubinstein, Valentin Serov (1910) abandoned the usual academic techniques. He broke the prospect. He made the background and body of the same color. The model merges with the wall. This is the modern style that appeared at that time.
Only lush black curls stand out clearly. Perhaps this is a halo, as in the works of artists of the Early Renaissance. And Serov’s head was difficult to turn into a half-profile.
Accidental and inevitable
The artist did not create a real image of a dancer. There is an abyss between his model and himself. Portrait of Ida Rubinstein - a complex picture that combines reality and conventionality. Serov, working intuitively and consciously, using the human qualities and appearance of Ida, stylized nature, so there is a feeling that the character of the ballerina is complex. She is recognizable, the portrait remained a portrait.
This catchy appearance, expressiveness, its plasticity, its splendor - all reflected Serov. The portrait of Ida Rubinstein (1910) is simultaneously permeated with lyrics, subtle and sad. The model is essentially weak and defenseless. Yes, she is unusually bizarre, extravagant, eccentric, but at the same time, the artist revealed her insecurity, inner drama. This was achieved, among other things, by the fact that Serov drew a nude model. In search of a monumental style, a portrait of Ida Rubinstein was painted. The picture revealed a generalized image of a woman of the decadence era.
Mikhail Vrubel
The brilliant M. Vrubel died in 1910. But before that, he was seriously ill. Blind His connection with the world was his beloved wife, her divine voice. Therefore, looking for a portrait of Ida Rubinstein Vrubel is useless. He never wrote it.
Where is the picture of Serov now?
The director of the Russian Museum immediately acquired this work of the late Serov, despite all the attacks of critics. He considered it, and, as time has shown, correctly, with a new word in art and, moreover, a masterpiece.