{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O123614"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O123614/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BH6998/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BH6998/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BH6998","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O123614/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O123614","accessionNumber":"S.7-2006","objectType":"Costume design","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"<i>The Sleeping Beauty</i> can be seen as an allegory of the seasons, and for the Prince in Act III Messel created a costume full of the sunshine of high summer, befitting the joyous wedding celebrations. It seems a strange choice, white being the traditional wedding colour, but stage designers often avoided using white, as it could look harsh under the strong stage lighting, whereas yellow would become a strong cream. That was the theory. In fact, the yellow costume was soon abandoned and the Prince revered to white tunic, trimmed in silver, and white tights.  The headdress too soon disappeared.  \r\n\r\n<i>The Sleeping Beauty</i>, designed for the Sadler's Wells (now Royal) Ballet in 1946, is Messel's most enduring production. The fairy costumes and fantasy elements he anchored in a 'real' world, inspired by the soaring architectural fantasies of the 17th and 18th centuries and costumes based upon mid-late 17th-century fashions, mixing English, Spanish and French period styles.\r\n\r\nOliver Messel (1904-1978) was Britain’s leading theatre designer throughout the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s, mastering every aspect of entertainment - ballet, drama, film, musical, opera and revue - as well as working in interior decoration and textile design. His lavish, painterly and romantic concepts were perfectly in tune with the times and earned him an international reputation. By 1960, however, that style was becoming unfashionable, and Messel gradually abandoned theatre and built a new career designing luxury homes in the Caribbean.","physicalDescription":"Costume design for Prince Florimund in Act III of <i>The Sleeping Beauty</i>.  Full-length male figure wearing lemon yellow tunic and tights with silver crown headdress and full-length uncoloured cloak.  The tunic is decorated with silver arabesques, ribbon loops and a winged head.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Messel, Oliver Hilary Sambourne","id":"A4929"},"association":{"text":"designer","id":"x36960"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"charcoal","id":"AAT12862"},{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"},{"text":"paint","id":"AAT15029"},{"text":"watercolour","id":"x33202"},{"text":"pencil","id":"x30347"}],"techniques":[{"text":"drawing (image-making)","id":"AAT54196"},{"text":"painting (image-making)","id":"AAT54216"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Charcoal, pencil, gouache, paint, watercolour on paper","categories":[{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Designs","id":"THES48968"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2006BH6998"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"005","id":"THES356227"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"costume design","id":"AAT163423"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1945","earliest":"1945-01-01","latest":"1945-12-31"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"S.1550-1982","id":"O110419"},"association":""}],"creditLine":"Acquired with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Art Fund and the Friends of the V&A","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"56.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"39.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'67'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Inscription in pencil on the back of the sheet"},{"content":"'#49'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Inscription in pencil on the back of the sheet."},{"content":"Aurora's Wedding / 67 / Prince Florimund. Last Act.","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"inscribed by Messel on original backboard"}],"objectHistory":"Oliver Messel designed <i>The Sleeping Beauty</i>, Marius Petipa and Tchaikovsky's masterpiece, in 1946 for the Sadler's Wells (now Royal) Ballet, the production with which the company reopened the Royal Opera House after its wartime use as a dance hall.  The production was in the repertory for nearly twenty-five years.  Messel revised the designs several times, with major revisions in 1952 and 1960 and he reworked the designs when the production was mounted in 1959 for the Royal Ballet Touring Company.  \r\nLord Snowdon, Oliver Messel's nephew, inherited Messel's theatre designs and other designs and artefacts.  The designs were briefly stored in a disused chapel in Kensington Palace before being housed at the V&A from 1981 on indefinite loan.  The V&A Theatre Museum purchased the Oliver Messel collection from Lord Snowdon in 2005.\n\nHistorical significance: The production of <i>The Sleeping Beauty</i> was an immediate success and established itself as the Sadler's Wells (now Royal) Ballet's 'signature' work, associated with many key events in the company's history.  These included their first sensational appearance in New York in 1949 (which established the company's international reputation in America) and Russia in 1961, when they took the ballet, performed by a British company barely thirty years old, back to the place of its birth in St Petersburg.  Messel's designs were a significant part of the ballet's success.   Sarah Woodcock said of this production  “<i>The Sleeping Beauty</i> was to be Messel’s biggest and most enduring production … The production was performed nearly one thousand one hundred and fifty times, from London to Los Angeles, from Leeds to Leningrad, becoming the Company’s ‘signature ballet’.”  (Pinkham, ed., 1983).","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Costume design by Oliver Messel for Prince Florimund in Act III of Marius Petipa's ballet <i>The Sleeping Beauty</i>, Sadler's Wells (now Royal) Ballet, 1946.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Pinkham, Roger (ed.) <i>Oliver Messel: an exhibition held at the Theatre Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, 22 June - 30 September 1983.</i> \r\nLondon: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983.  200p., ill\r\nISBN 0905209508)"}],"production":"The colour of the costume confirms that this design is for the 1946 production\n\nReason For Production: Commission","productionType":{"text":"Design","id":"THES48872"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":["<i>The Sleeping Beauty</i>"],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.7-2006"],"accessionNumberNum":"7","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2006,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"TM Rotation Number","id":"THES50368"},"number":"ROT 3316"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-05-08","recordCreationDate":"2006-05-03","availableToBook":true}}