Serafim Nikolaevich Sudbinin (1867 - 1944)

Serafim Nikolaevich Sudbinin

Serafim Nikolaevich Sudbinin (russian: Серафим Николаевич Судьбинин), born Golovastikov (Головастиков), was a Russian actor, painter and sculptor.

Serafim came from the merchant family of Golovastikov, his grandfather was an icon painter. In the 1890s he worked as an actor in provincial theaters, in 1898-1904 - in the Moscow Art Theatre, playing several significant roles in the plays of Gorky, Leo Tolstoy and others. In the theater he performed under the pseudonym Sudbinin. In the same years he began to engage in drawing, modeling, photography. In 1902 Sudbinin made a trip to Paris, where he decided to seriously engage in sculpture and soon left the theater.

Since 1904 he has lived permanently in Paris, receiving a scholarship from S. T. Morozov, studied under the guidance of L. S. Sinaev-Bernstein and J.-A. Enzhalber. In 1906 he became a pupil and assistant of the great sculptor Auguste Rodin. Several portraits of Rodin by Sudbinin are kept in the Rodin Museum in Paris. Sudbinin created many portraits and sculptures of famous people in bronze, marble and plaster. In 1913 he executed for the Imperial Porcelain Factory figures of artists T. P. Karsavina, L. V. Sobinov, K. S. Stanislavsky in the role of Stockman, Anna Pavlova in the roles of Bacchante, Giselle, Swan.

After 1917 Sudbinin remained in France. For many years he collaborated with Sevres manufactory and with the workshop of L. Delashënal. Delashënal. Later he had his own workshop in Sevres, where he created decorative vessels, was engaged in fine plastic art in the Art Deco style, in particular, performed figures of animals. Several works by Sudbinin in different years were acquired by the Museum of Ceramics in Sevres and the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris.

Since 1922 Sudbinin often visited the United States, where he had many orders, in particular created a series of park sculptures for the Minister of Finance E.-U. Mallon. He also turned to religious themes, creating wooden sculptures, stylized in the spirit of early Gothic, with the use of colored varnish and gilding; he was fond of Oriental ceramics and the artistic culture of the Aztecs.