{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O125700"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O125700/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2007BM0005/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2007BM0005/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2007BM0005","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2019MC6565","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2007BL9999","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O125700/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O125700","accessionNumber":"S.194:1 to 2-2006","objectType":"Set design","titles":[{"title":"The Queen of Spades","type":"generic title"}],"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\nTchaikovsky’s <i>The Queen of Spades</i> (1890) was presented for the first time at the Royal Opera House by the Covent Garden Opera Trust on 21 December 1950.   Messel had worked on the film version a year earlier.  He produced colourful and extravagant sets and costumes which contributed to the eerie and fantastic atmosphere of the opera, about a Countess who has sold her soul to the devil for the secret of winning at cards.\r\n\r\nFor the Countess’s death scene in her bedroom, Messel placed her in a giant armchair, creating the illusion of a dying, old, shrunken woman.  Critics praised Messel’s set ‘…the old Countess’s bedroom, with its dark corners and recesses, is a triumph of lurking horror combined with tenebrous magnificence.’  (<i>Observer</i>, Dec 24, 1950).","physicalDescription":"Set design by Oliver Messel for a cutcloth for the Countess's bedroom, in <i>The Queen of Spades</i>, Covent Garden, 1950.  Watercolour painting in two pieces, showing a view of the Countess's bedroom. \n\n<b>S.194:1-2006</b>\nDesign for the rear wall. The walls and ceiling are curved, as if seen through a distorted lense. Green wall panels and doors with gilt Baroque decoration.  An arch is cut out, centre.\n\n<b>S.194:2-2006</b>\nPaper painted with a dark brown wedge-shaped section, lightly marked with converging lines to suggest a dark passageway, to be fixed behind the arch.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Messel, Oliver Hilary Sambourne","id":"A4929"},"association":{"text":"designer","id":"x36960"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"pencil","id":"x30347"},{"text":"watercolour","id":"x33202"},{"text":"charcoal","id":"AAT12862"},{"text":"paint","id":"AAT15029"},{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"},{"text":"foil","id":"AAT160106"}],"techniques":[{"text":"drawing (image making)","id":"AAT54196"},{"text":"painting (image making)","id":"AAT178675"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Charcoal, pencil, gouache, paint, foil and watercolour on paper","categories":[{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Designs","id":"THES48968"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2007BM0005","2019MC6565","2007BL9999"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"009","id":"THES356231"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"009","id":"THES356231"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"set design","id":""}],[{"text":"set design","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1950","earliest":"1950-01-01","latest":"1950-12-31"},"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":"32","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"design for rear wall"},{"dimension":"Width","value":"51","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"design for rear wall"},{"dimension":"Height","value":"14.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"archway backing"},{"dimension":"Width","value":"25","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"archway backing"}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'Pique Dame / B... [indescipherable] ceiling'","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 in pencil, reverse of S.194:2-2006"}],"objectHistory":"<i>The Queen of Spades</i> (1890), an opera by Tchaikovsky with libretto by Modest Tchaikovsky from a short story by Alexander Pushkin (1834).  Presented by the Covent Garden Opera at the Royal Opera House, London on 21 December, 1950.  It was directed by Michael Benthall and featured Edgar Evans as Herman and Jess Walters as Yeletsky.  It was revived  at the Royal Opera House, London, in 1956.  \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: This was the first time that <i>The Queen of Spades</i> had been presented at Covent Garden, and the first time since 1915 it had been presented in London.  Messel also designed costumes and sets for a film version of the tale in 1949.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Design by Oliver Messel for the cut cloth in the Countess's bedroom in Tchaikovsky's opera <i>The Queen of Spades</i>, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1950","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.194:1-2006","S.194:2-2006"],"accessionNumberNum":"194","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2006,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"TM Rotation Number","id":"THES50368"},"number":"ROT 2282:45"},{"type":{"text":"TM Rotation Number","id":"THES50368"},"number":"ROT 2282:47"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-08","recordCreationDate":"2006-07-06","availableToBook":true}}