{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O125613"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O125613/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BH6882/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BH6882/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BH6882","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O125613/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O125613","accessionNumber":"S.163-2006","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\nVivien Leigh (1913-1967) played Titania, one of her first Shakespearean roles.  A. E. Wilson reported that she was ‘like an exquisite picture from some Victorian lady’s keepsake’.  This costume sketch indicates the flowing lines of her early Victorian style white muslin dress, which Messel decorated with flowers and accessorized with insect wings.","physicalDescription":"A costume design by Oliver Messel for Titania.  A full length view of the figure in pencil and charcoal.  A woman in a long dress, standing on pointe, hand on the right raised.  A long, flowing dress with wings and headdress.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Messel, Oliver Hilary Sambourne","id":"A4929"},"association":{"text":"designer","id":"x36960"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"},{"text":"charcoal","id":"AAT12862"},{"text":"pencil","id":"x30347"}],"techniques":[{"text":"drawing (image making)","id":"AAT54196"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Charcoal and pencil on paper","categories":[{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Designs","id":"THES48968"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2006BH6882"],"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":[{"object":{"text":"S.491-2006","id":"O128416"},"association":"Object"}],"creditLine":"Acquired with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Art Fund and the Friends of the V&A","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"38","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"25","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Ink marks","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Ink marks on the back 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 Titania in William Shakespeare's play, <i>A Midsummer Night's Dream</i>, Old Vic, 1937","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Pinkham, Roger (ed.) <u>Oliver Messel: an exhibition held at the Theatre Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, 22 June - 30 September 1983.</u> \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":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.163-2006"],"accessionNumberNum":"163","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2006,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"TM Rotation Number","id":"THES50368"},"number":"ROT 2156"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-05-08","recordCreationDate":"2006-06-30","availableToBook":true}}