Nadia Benois, mother of actor Peter Ustinov, was one of Russian Imperial
Theatre's finest artists who emigrated and made a career as theatre an
film set designer and worked with the Royal Ballet in London.
She was born Nadezhda Leontievna Benois on May 17, 1896, in St.
Petersburg, Russia. Her father, named Leonti (Louis) Benois, was the
owner of the famous Leonardo Da Vinci's painting 'Madonna Benois'; he
was of Russian, French and Italian ancestry, and was an architect, who
built several landmarks in St. Petersburg. Her mother had Ethiopian
Royal ancestry. The large family of Benois lived in a grand mansion
near the Imperial Mariinsky Opera House in St. Petersburg, that was
built by her architect grandfather Nikolai Benois.
Nadia Benois was brought up in a highly cultural environment in her
family mansion near the Opera House. She began her studies in art under
her uncle Alexandre Benois, who was the neighbor next door and had an art
studio. She graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine arts and
worked for the Imperial Mariinsky Opera House in St. Petersburg. In
1916 she married a Russian-German pilot Iona (Jona) von Ustinov
(nicknamed Klop). After the Russian revolution of 1917 she was
undecided about emigration, but when she became pregnant in 1920 the
couple emigrated to London, England. Her son Peter Ustinov was born in 1921,
and she lived in England ever since.
Nadia Benois made a career as a ballet and opera set designer with the
"Russian Seasons" produced by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev. From 1930's she
collaborated with Marie Rambert and the Rambert Dance company at the Duchess
Theatre in London, where she produced her acclaimed design for ballet
'Dark Elegies'. She later worked with the Royal Ballet on productions
of ballets by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. She was a costume designer for two films
directed by her son Peter Ustinov: 'Vice Versa' (1948) and 'Private
Angelo' (1949). She also was a fine artist and participated in many art
exhibitions in London and Paris during the 1920's -1930's. Her artworks
are now owned by such museums, as the Tate Gallery, the Carnegie
Institute, the National Gallery of New Zealand, and other collections
worldwide.
