Ida Rubinstein

Ida Rubinstein was a superstar, long before the term was invented. We talk of women's empowerment today and yet here was a woman, at a time when most women were completely powerless, who overcame every obstacle placed in her path to follow her dreams of becoming an artist. She was a trailblazer ahead of her time. Here was a star of Diaghilev's Ballet Russes opposite Nijinsky; here was a woman who defied being locked up by her family in a mental institution because she planned to play Salomé; here was a woman who became Diaghilev's rival impresario, for whom Maurice Ravel wrote his now world famous Bolero.whose star rose over Paris's Belle Epoque and transcended both world wars. She both courted scandal and yet remained mysteriously private. Ida had two great loves, the politician Lord Moyne, and the artist Romaine Brooks. She was a Jewish woman who converted to Catholicism, who retreated into solitude after the second world war and died totally forgotten Ida was a woman who defied all the conventional mores and wisdom in order to pursue her artistic vision. Hers was a life that in so many ways was lived ahead of its time, and yet was defined by its era.