The article reviews the work of the Russian émigré painter Serge Sudeikin (1882-1946) on ballet performances in New York Metropolitan Opera in the 1920s. Using two performances with Igor Stravinsky’s music («Petrushka», 1925, and «Les Noces», 1929), the author considers Sudeikin’s set design during that period, follows up the changes in his stylistics of ballet set design, and evaluates their significance for the further evolution of the master who fit naturally into the context of another culture. Based on archival documents, visual material, publications of those years, and modern studies, an attempt is made to reconstruct the visual image of the performances that have been undeservedly put back in the history of set design into the shadow of their better known analogues of Diaghilev’s company: the performances by А. Benois - М. Fokin - I. Stravinsky («Petrushka», 1911) and B. Nijinska - N. Goncharova - I. Stravinsky («Les Noces», 1923).