Vladimir Polunin

Vladimir Jacolievitch Polunin (Also anglicised as Vladimir Yakovlevich Polunin.)

Biography Polunin was born in 1880 in Moscow, Moscow Governorate (present-day Moscow Oblast, Russia) to Yasha Akimovich Polunin (Also cited as Jakof Akimovich Polunin.) Polunin was the youngest of five siblings. In 1908 Polunin and his wife moved to England and settled in London. 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.

Polunin died on 11 March 1957 in Godalming, Surrey.

Publication The Continental Method of Scene Painting: Seven Years With the Diaghileff Company.