{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O123664"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O123664/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BH6996/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BH6996/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BH6996","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O123664/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O123664","accessionNumber":"S.18-2006","objectType":"Costume design","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"<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 are set 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\nA number of fairies appear at Princess Aurora's christening, bestowing on her various gifts, like charm, beauty and music. The Fairy of the Woodland Glades gives generosity, her solo including scattering movements that, in the original, were associated with breadcrumbs (the offering of bread and salt being traditional welcoming gifts in Russia).  She wears a classical tutu covered with Oliver Messel's favourite morning glories, which he loved for their vibrant colour and beautiful shape.  \r\n\r\nAlthough the design shows the fairy wearing a train, these were never executed for any production. Maybe with seven fairies, seven trains were simply too much on a crowded stage; possibly in 1946, when many fabrics were only available on coupons, resources could not stretch to something that, given the wearer could not actually dance in it, would have been worn for a relatively short time.   \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 the Fairy of the Woodland Glades in the ballet <i>The Sleeping Beauty</i>. Full-length figure in a tutu decorated with an organic pattern of brown and gold branches, blue morning glories and green leaves. The headdress and train, attached to the right shoulder, are similarly decorated.","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"},{"text":"gouache","id":"AAT70114"}],"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":["2006BH6996"],"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":[],"creditLine":"Acquired with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Art Fund and the Friends of the V&A","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"37.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"25.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"50.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"mount","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"38","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"mount","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'Oliver Messel'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Artist's signature in pencil on the bottom right-hand corner on the front of the sheet"},{"content":"'The Fairy of The Woodland glades'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Pencil inscription on the top right-hand corner of the front of the sheet."},{"content":"'18'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Biro inscription on a sticky label affixed to the back of the mount."},{"content":"CUSTOMS 7 EXCISE / (LONDON AIRPORT EXPORT) / 28 SEPT 1949 / [signature illegible]","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Rectangular Customs stamp signed in ball point pen"},{"content":"[crown] / CUSTOMS / AND / EXCISE","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Round Customs stamp"},{"content":"18 1/2 x 14","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"in red crayon"},{"content":"39","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"In red crayon overwritten in black"}],"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 the Fairy of the Woodland Glades in the Prologue 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":"Reason 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.18-2006"],"accessionNumberNum":"18","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2006,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"TM Rotation Number","id":"THES50368"},"number":"ROT 3468"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-03","recordCreationDate":"2006-05-04","availableToBook":true}}