Sergei Soudeikine set designs for cinema

1938-1939

Stage designer Sergei Soudeikine (1882-1946) was born in Russia and studied art in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Paris. He began designing sets in 1905 with Meyerhold's Moscow production of The death of Tintagiles by Maurice Maeterlinck, the first of several collaborations with Meyerhold. Soudeikine also designed sets for the Kamerny Theatre, as well as sets and costumes for Sergei Diaghilev's production of La tragedie de Salome by Florent Schmitt (1913). Emigrating to Paris ca. 1918, Soudeikine worked for the impresario Nikita Balieff, creator and producer of various editions of the revue Chauve-souris. Coming to New York in 1922, Soudeikine designed for the Metropolitan Opera, Radio City Music Hall, the Broadway productions of Chauve-souris (1922-1927), and several other shows, among them the original production of Porgy and Bess (1935), as well as for ballets. Soudeikine's film work included We live again (1938). His marriages to actress Olga Glebova and dancer Vera de Bosset ending in divorce, Soudeikine was married to soprano Jeanne Palmer for many years until his death. He died on Aug. 12, 1946 in Nyack, New York. Original set designs, mostly color, by Sergei Soudeikine, for the motion pictures We live again (1938) and Wuthering Heights (1939). There is also 1 black and white photograph of a costume design for Merle Oberon in Wuthering Heights (designer unidentified). Many of the set designs have typed identification labels, as well as handwritten titles; only 1 is signed on the verso.