But it was in Australia that Helena Rubinstein first made her fortune, which is why the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra had long had a portrait of her on its wish-list.

The gallery is now the proud owner of a particularly striking and larger-than-life portrait of Rubinstein, painted in 1957 when she was 85 and at the height of her fame and style.

Gallery director Angus Trumble said the portrait, by the British artist Graham Sutherland, was one of the finest depictions in existence of a woman who had been photographed and painted countless times throughout her life, including by Salvador Dali.

Born in the Jewish ghetto of Krakow in Poland in 1872, Rubinstein migrated to Australia in 1902, with no money or skills, but an outstanding complexion and an innate business nous.

After a stint with relatives in Coleraine in Western Victoria, she moved to Melbourne, where she eventually began marketing her signature Crème Valaze.

"It purported to contain rare herbs gathered in the Carpathian mountains, tree moss and oil of almonds and evergreen plants," Mr Trumble said.

"In fact, it was mostly lanolin wax and mineral oil, and it wasn't imported, it was run up in the Felton Grimwade factory in Flinders Lane. It had a unit cost of 10 pence, and she sold it for six shillings a pot, which was a 620 per cent mark-up."

The rest, he said, was history; Rubinstein – whose eponymous cosmetics brand is still sold today – eventually became one of the world's richest women at the time, dying in 1965 with a corporation worth $60 million.

"She was a genius for business," Mr Trumble said.

"Hers were not the only skin creams available, of course, at that time, but the big, huge breakthrough, which she seemed to have grasped innately, was she was really the first person to conceive of them as a luxury, and ... adapted the 'developed in the laboratory'-type mirage."

She also established flagship salons in Melbourne, London, Paris and New York, even though her products were mass-marketed through department stores, a model that made her a multi-millionairess.

"It's very difficult to think of a major multi-national company starting its life as a shop in Melbourne, even less started by an independent woman," Mr Trumble said.

And, while she stood just 147cm tall, she was a formidable presence, as shown in Sutherland's portrait, wearing a red brocade Balenciaga gown and seated imperiously.

Rubinstein owned the portrait until her death, when it passed to the Helena Rubinstein Foundation in New York, which wound up operations in 2011.

It was then acquired by London dealer Daniel Katz, who offered it to the National Portrait Gallery for a six-figure sum.

Mr Trumble said the purchase was made possible by several of the gallery's benefactors.

The portrait will, for the moment, take pride of place front and centre of Gallery 2 – the first work visitors will see as they enter the gallery.