This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Mme Ida Rubinstein
Artist:Léon Bakst (Russian (born present day Belarus), Hrodna (Grodno) 1866–1924 Paris)
Date:1917
Medium:Watercolor, opaque watercolor, and graphite on paper, mounted on canvas
Dimensions:50 1/2 × 27 1/4 in. (128.3 × 69.2 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:The Chester Dale Collection, Bequest of Chester Dale, 1962
Object Number:64.97.1
Inscription: Signed (lower left, in brush and black watercolor): Bakst
comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezenac, Palais Rose, Le Vésinet, France (1917–at least 1919); the artist, New York and Paris (in 1923); [Galerie Bignou, Paris, until 1930; sold in June 1930, for Fr 35,000, to Dale]; Chester Dale, New York (1930–d. 1962; his bequest to the National Gallery of Art); National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C. (1962–64; their gift to MMA)
New York. M. Knoedler & Co. "Recent Works by Bakst," December 6–16, 1922, no. 3 (as "Mrs. Ida Rubinstein").
Arts Club of Chicago. "Exhibition of Paintings by Léon Bakst," March 12–April 5, 1923, no. 2 (as "Madame Ida Rubinstein").
New York. Museum of French Art, French Institute in the United States. "Portraits of Women: Romanticism to Surrealism," January 1931, no. 24 (as "Portrait, Mme. Ida Rubinstein," lent by Chester Dale).
Jewish Museum, New York. "Russian Jewish Artists in a Century of Change, 1890–1990," September 21, 1995–January 28, 1996, unnumbered cat. (p. 151; as "Ida Rubinstein").
Madison, Wis. Elvehjem Museum of Art. "Russian Jewish Artists in a Century of Change, 1890–1990," March 16–May 19, 1996, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," May 9–August 7, 2017, no catalogue.
New York. Morgan Library & Museum. "Crafting the Ballets Russes: The Robert Owen Lehman Collection," June 28–September 22, 2024, unnumbered cat. (fig. 49).
Albert Flament. "Bakst, artificier, décorateur et portraitiste." La Renaissance de l'art français et des industries de luxe 2 (March 1919), ill. p. 94, calls it the most recent portrait of Mme Rubinstein, in the collection of Comte Robert de Montesquiou.
"Leon Bakst's Works at Private View." New York Times (December 6, 1922), p. 16.
"Art in the Current Exhibitions of Paintings." New York Times (December 10, 1922), p. 106.
André Levinson. Bakst: The Story of Leon Bakst's Life. Berlin and New York, 1922, pl. 57, calls it "Portrait of Ida Rubinstein".
Simon Lissim. "Un Rénovateur de la décoration théatrale: Léon Bakst (1866–1925)." La Revue de 'art 47 (February 1925), p. 104, ill. p. 111.
"French Portraits—1830–1930." Brooklyn Daily Eagle (January 25, 1931), p. B15, ill.
Royal Cortissoz. "Giovanni Boldini and His Art. Portraiture: Examples at the French Museum and Elsewhere." New York Herald Tribune (January 25, 1931), p. G8.
Edward Alden Jewell. "Museum of French Art: 'Romanticism to Surrealism'." New York Times (January 25, 1931), p. X12.
Edward A. Jewell. "Art: Museum of French Art Opens." New York Times (January 20, 1931), p. 32.
"Art: Lovely Ladies." Time 17 (February 2, 1931), p. 34.
Guy Pène du Bois. "Exhibitions: 'Portraits of Women'." Arts 17 (February 1931), p. 343.
New York Evening Post (January 24, 1931), Saturday Gravure section, ill. n.p., calls it "Portrait of Mme. Ida Rubenstein [sic]".
John E. Bowlt inRussian Jewish Artists in a Century of Change, 1890–1990. Ed. Susan Tumarkin Goodman. Exh. cat., Jewish Museum. New York, 1995, pp. 41, 247, ill. p. 151, dates it 1910.
Jacques Depaulis. Ida Rubinstein: Une inconnue jadis célèbre. Paris, 1995, pp. 212–14, 548, ill. between pp. 352 and 353.
Antoine Bertrand. Les Curiosités esthétiques de Robert de Montesquiou. Geneva, 1996, vol. 2, pp. 643, 647.
Léon Bakst (Russian (born present day Belarus), Hrodna (Grodno) 1866–1924 Paris)
1912
Resources for Research
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's engagement with art from 1890 to today includes the acquisition and exhibition of works in a range of media, spanning movements in modernism to contemporary practices from across the globe.
