Sergei Sudeikin (Russian, 1882-1946)
Lot 670

Sergei Sudeikin (Russian, 1882-1946)

Set design for The Goldfish: Scene III

Closed26 November 2013

Price Realised

GBP 27,500

More Information

How to sell

Sergei Sudeikin (Russian, 1882-1946)
Set design for The Goldfish: Scene III
signed 'Soudeikine' (lower right); with inscription 'Present/from/S.Soudeikin/ to Mikhail/Mordkin' (on the backing paper)
pencil, gouache, heightened with silver and gold, on paper laid down on board
17¼ x 31¼ in. (44 x 79.5 cm.)
Executed circa 1937

Mikhail Mordkin (inscription on the backing paper)

Specialist note

This charming gouache is a set design for Mikhail Mordkin's (b. 1880)
1937 ballet The goldfish, for which Nikolai Tcherepnin (b. 1873)
wrote the music. Mordkin, former star principle of Diaghiliev's Ballets Russes and subsequent director of the Bolshoi, first
founded his company (the Mordkin Ballet) in 1926 after emigrating to
the United States. Sudeikin contributed designs for his ballet The
goldfish
, which was based on Alexander Pushkin's The Tale of the
Fisherman and the Fish
. This beloved fairy tale in verse about a
magical fish with the ability to grant wishes provides a warning against avarice