Vladimir Polunin


Vladimir Jacolievitch Polunin was a Russian artist, stage designer, and stage scene painter.

History

Polunin was born in Moscow in 1880. He earned a degree in forestry in St. Petersburg and later studied art in Munich and Paris, specializing in tempera and distemper painting.
In St. Petersburg, he met British painter and stage designer Elizabeth Violet Hart while she was studying with Léon Bakst. The couple married in 1907 and moved to England where they remained the rest of their lives.
By 1914, Polunin was working with Boris Anisfeld on the designs for Vaslav Nijinsky's ill-fated season at the Palace Theatre. In 1918 he began working on the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, creating stage sets from artists' designs, and maintained and restored stage cloths. He eventually became Diaghilev's chief scene-painter. At this time, Pablo Picasso painted sets under his direction. In 1929, he founded the stage painting department at the Slade School of Fine Art, teaching there for 20 years.
He was the father of botanists Nicholas Polunin and Oleg Polunin, physician Ivan Polunin, and piano teacher Tanya Polunin.
Polunin died on 11 March 1957 in Godalming, Surrey, England, UK.

Publication