{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O125611"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O125611/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2007BL9942/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2007BL9942/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2007BL9942","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O125611/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O125611","accessionNumber":"S.162-2006","objectType":"Costume design","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Great Britain’s leading theatre designer from the early 1930s to the mid 1950s, Oliver Messel (1904-1978) won international acclaim for his lavish, painterly and poetic designs informed by period styles.  His work spans ballet, drama, film, musical, opera and revue. Messel’s traditional style of theatre design became unfashionable from the mid 1950s onwards, and he increasingly concentrated on painting, interior and textile design, including designing luxury homes in the Caribbean.\r\n\r\nMessel created a light-hearted pastiche of early Victorian style for Shakespeare’s <i>A Midsummer Night’s Dream</i>, presented at the Old Vic Theatre on 27 December, 1937.   Tyrone Guthrie, the director, sought to reconcile Elizabethan comedy with the Old Vic’s early Victorian architecture (1833) and Mendelssohn’s (1809-1847) early Victorian incidental music.  He said that the music was ‘redolent of crimson and gold opera houses, of operatic fairies in white muslin flying through groves of emerald canvas.’  (Old Vic Theatre Programme, 27 December 1937).\r\n\r\nRobert Helpmann (1909-1986), a ballet dancer and actor, played Oberon.  Messel’s designed a dark costume decorated with organic motifs in contrasting bright, shimmering fabrics in gold, blue and yellow with red wings.  The design also indicates Oberon’s heavy, blue eye makeup.","physicalDescription":"A costume design by Oliver Messel for Oberon.  A full length view of the figure, hand on the left raised.  He wears a black suit with red wings attached at the back.  Gold, yellow and blue decoration on the costume.  Headdress in gold, blue and yellow.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Messel, Oliver Hilary Sambourne","id":"A4929"},"association":{"text":"designer","id":"x36960"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"},{"text":"watercolour","id":"x33202"},{"text":"charcoal","id":"AAT12862"},{"text":"pencil","id":"x30347"},{"text":"ink","id":"AAT15012"},{"text":"paint","id":"AAT15029"}],"techniques":[{"text":"painting (image making)","id":"AAT54216"},{"text":"drawing (image making)","id":"AAT54196"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Charcoal, ink, pencil, gouache, paint and watercolour on paper","categories":[{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Designs","id":"THES48968"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2007BL9942"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES356268"},"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":"1937","earliest":"1937-01-01","latest":"1937-12-31"},"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":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"25.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","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 left hand corner on the front of the sheet."}],"objectHistory":"<i>A Midsummer Night’s Dream</i>, a comedy in five acts by William Shakespeare (ca. 1595).  Oliver Messel’s production was first produced  at the Old Vic Theatre, London on 27 December 1937.   It was directed by Tyrone Guthrie with music by Mendelssohn and choreography by Ninette de Valois.   It featured Vivien Leigh as Titania and Robert Helpmann as Oberon.  \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.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Costume design by Oliver Messel for Oberon in William Shakespeare's play, <i>A Midsummer Night's Dream</i>, Old Vic, 1937","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Pinkham, Roger (ed.) <i>Oliver Messel</i>, London, V&A, 1983","id":"AUTH353280"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"Reason For Production: Commission","productionType":{"text":"Design","id":"THES48872"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.162-2006"],"accessionNumberNum":"162","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2006,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"TM Rotation Number","id":"THES50368"},"number":"ROT 2147"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-05-08","recordCreationDate":"2006-06-30","availableToBook":true}}