Helena Rubinstein was the founder of the highly successful, internationalcosmetics empire which bore her name. Madame as she liked tobe called acquired a vast quantity of works, furniture and artefacts of everytype, in the process becoming a legendary patron and arbiter of taste. The mostremarkable and innovative components of this astonishing collection, dispersedafter her death at a historic series of auctions in 1966, were its African holdings,with the remainder being made up of Oceanic, Indonesian and pre-Hispanicart. It is the history of this collection, its content and above all its spirit thatHelena Rubinstein: Madame's Collectionreconstructs. The aim, as well as theapproach, of the exhibition is entirely novel.In a long-term investigation, Hélène Joubert, head of the African heritage unit,hunted down, identified and scientifically documented half of the nearly fourhundred pieces in the collection. Sixty-five of them are reproduced in thiscatalogue, including the famous Bangwa Queen , photographed by Man Rayand shown in 1935 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York at the legendaryAfrican Negro Art exhibition.These works conjure up an evocative portrait of Helena Rubinstein, creatingan authentic and intimate portrait of a figure whose global fame simultaneouslyfunctioned as a mask, mirror and doppelganger.