Sergey Yurievich Sudeikin was a Russian artist and set-designer associated with the Ballets Russes and the Metropolitan Opera. Having been banned from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture for his "obscene drawings", Sudeikin joined the Mir Iskusstva movement.
Background
Sergey Yurievich Sudeikin was born in Petersburg into the family of a gendarme officer named George Porfirevich Sudeikin. While his father and grandfather were content, as so many other Russians had been before them, to live a life for the tsar in the army and the civil service, Diaghilev resolved to transform his age and consecrated his life to the cult of beauty.
Education
In 1897 Sergey Sudeikin entered the Moscow School for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Among his teachers there were A.E. Arkhipov, A.S. Stepanov, A. M.Vasnetsov, N.A.Kasatkin, L. O.Pasternak. In 1902 he was expelled from the Art School for showing his works “of indecent content” at a student exhibition.
The beginning of Sergey Sudeikin’s career as a scenery designer was associated with the Moscow Theater "Hermitage", where he worked on stage design of a number of operas in 1902. Savva Mamontov was the first to involve Sudeikin in artwork for operas in the Moscow Theater "Hermitage". Later stage art design became his major career. The artist cooperated with many well-known theatrical figures.
In 1909 he created scenery for Bernard Show’s play “Caesar and Cleopatra” staged at F. Komissarzhevskaya's New Drama Theater in Petersburg. In 1911 he worked on stage design of various ballet performances as well as Mikhail Kuzmin's comic play “Amusement of Maidens” in the Petersburg Maly Drama Theater.
In 1909 the artist entered the St.Petersburg Arts Academy, where he started working in the workshop of D. Kardovsky from 1910. In the 1910s Sudeikin became one of the central figures of Petersburg literary and artistic life. He became a close friend with Mikhail Kuzmin and illustrated the poet’s books “Love Chiming Clock” (1910) and “Autumn Lakes” (1912).
At the same time the artist got acquainted with Alexander Benois and other members of the Mir Iskusstva (World of Art) group. In 1911 Sudeikin joined Mir Iskusstva and became a constant participant of its exhibitions. Most of all he was friendly with Konstantin Somov, whose creative motives appeared in Sudeikin’s works аs well. Romantic themes so favored by Konstantin Somov and other artists of the “World of Art” group frequently got lubok (popular print) interpretation with elements of grotesque and theatricalization in Sudeikin’s works. The theater, ballet, and Italian comedy became subjects of his works.
He assisted Meyerkhold in arranging the theatre “House of Interludes” (1910 - 1911), and painted walls of the theater-cabaret “Vagrant Dog” in 1911. In 1915 he created decorative panels for the Halt of Comedians theatre. In 1913 Sudeikin participated as a stage artist in the famous Diaghilev’s Russian Seasons in Paris.
Sudeikin moved to Crimea in 1917 and then to Tiflis in 1919. In 1920 he left for Paris. In emigration theater work remained his major activity. In France Sudeikin cooperated with N. Baliev and his cabaret "The Bat", as well as “Russian Opera” and Apollo Theater, and created scenery for the ballet “Sleeping Beauty” staged by Anna Pavlova’s troupe.
After moving to the USA in 1923 Sudeikin worked a lot for the Metropolitan Opera, collaborated with the troupes of Mikhail Fokin and George Balanchine, and painted scenery for the movie “Sunday” (based on Leo Tolstoy 's novel) released in Hollywood in 1934 - 1935. In the last years of his life Sergei Sudeikin suffered from a serious illness. He died in New York in August 1946.
Cover of the catalog of the exhibition "Scarlet Rose"
1904
Night festival
1905
Portrait of O. A. Glebova-Sudeikina
1905
Festivities
1906
Russian ballet (Pavlova and Nijinsky in “Pavillon d'Armide”)
1907
Frontispiece for the magazine "Golden Fleece"
1908
Still life with porcelain figurines and roses
1909
Lovers under the moon
1910
Decoration for "Entertainment for the girls" by Kuzmin
1911
Design for "The visible side of life" by Benavente
1912
Portrait of Leonide Massine in “The Legend of Joseph”
1914
Allegorial scene
1915
Views
Sergei envisaged the work as a myth about reincarnation and renewal, “springlike, very fresh and youthful, and I couldn’t see what on earth that had to do with black-and-gold sumptuosity”, he commented later. His vision was of “simple shapes, clear light and pure color.”
Membership
In 1911 Sudeikin joined Mir Iskusstva and became a constant participant of its exhibitions.
Personality
Sudeikin talent was never in doubt, but the personal qualities of the artist were estimated not so unequivocally. However, he did not seek to hide his deliberate posturing and arrogance.
Physical Characteristics:
Dressed Sudeikin was always like a dandy — immaculately.
Connections
In 1907-1918, Sergei was married to actress Olga Glebova, one of the famed beauties of Saint Petersburg and the closest friend of Anna Akhmatova. 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.