Sergey Yurievich Sudeikin, also known as Serge Soudeikine (19 March 1882 in

Smolensk Smolensk ( rus, Смоленск, p=smɐˈlʲensk, a=smolensk_ru.ogg) is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest ...

– 12 August 1946 in Nyack, New York), was a

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

n artist and set-designer associated with the

Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society. ...

and the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is opera ...

Biography

Having been banned from the

Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture The Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (russian: Московское училище живописи, ваяния и зодчества, МУЖВЗ) also known by the acronym MUZHZV, was one of the largest educational insti ...

for his "obscene drawings", Sudeikin joined the Mir Iskusstva movement. His close friends included the poet Mikhail Kuzmin and the impresario

Serge Diaghilev Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪˈrɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), usually referred to outside Russia as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, p ...

, at whose invitation he came to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

in 1906 for the Salon d'Automne Exhibition, where his work was first shown abroad. From 1907 to 1918 he was married to actress Olga Glebova (1885–1945), one of the famed beauties of

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

and the closest friend of Anna Akhmatova. Glebova-Sudeikina is the principal character and addressee of Akhmatova's longest work, ''The Poem Without Hero'' (1940–65). Sudeikin designed the sets and costumes for Diaghilev's production of ''La tragédie de Salomé'' by

Florent Schmitt Florent Schmitt (; 28 September 187017 August 1958) was a French composer. He was part of the group known as Les Apaches. His most famous pieces are ''La tragédie de Salome'' and ''Psaume XLVII'' (Psalm 47). He has been described as "one of th ...

in 1913, and assisted in the execution of Nicholas Roerich's designs for

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...

's ''

The Rite of Spring , image = Roerich Rite of Spring.jpg , image_size = 350px , caption = Concept design for act 1, part of Nicholas Roerich's designs for Diaghilev's 1913 production of ' , composer = Igor Stravinsky , based_on ...

'' the same year. By the time of the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mom ...

Sudeikin was among the foremost theatrical designers in Russia. In 1913 he had eloped to Paris with the dancer Vera de Bosset, whom he subsequently married, and who in the 1920s left him to become the mistress and ultimately second wife of Stravinsky. Sudeikin 1

In 1926 he prepared artwork for the 1926 Broadway production of Nikolai Evreinov's ''The Chief Thing''. Soudeikine later designed the settings for the original

Theatre Guild The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley and Theresa Helburn. Langner's wife, Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of th ...

production of ''

Porgy and Bess ''Porgy and Bess'' () is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play '' Porgy'', ...

'' that first opened on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre in New York City on October 10, 1935.

External links

*
Russian biographyGuide to Serge Sudeikin Drawings
a
Houghton Library
Harvard University
Sergei Soudeikine set designs for cinema, 1938-1939
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts {{DEFAULTSORT:Sudeikin, Serge 20th-century Russian painters Russian male painters Modern artists 1882 births 1946 deaths American people of Russian descent White Russian emigrants to the United States Bisexual artists Russian LGBT artists 20th-century Russian male artists Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture alumni