{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O126876"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O126876/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BH6884/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BH6884/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BH6884","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O126876/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O126876","accessionNumber":"S.250-2006","objectType":"Set design","titles":[{"title":"Rashomon","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\nOliver Messel won an Antoinette Perry 'Tony' Award for his set for <i>Rashomon</i>, a play directed by Peter Glenville and performed at the Music Box Theatre, New York, in 1959.  Although a box office failure, the play was critically acclaimed. Brooks Atkinson praised Messel’s atmospheric set: ‘…Oliver Messel’s settings, representing the decaying Rashomon gate and a barbaric bamboo jungle are like the illustrations for a macabre legend. <i>Rashomon</i> is an incantation of things far away and long since forgotten.’ (<i>New York Times</i>, 28 January 1959).\r\n\r\nPeter Glenville, the director, recalled ‘Rashomon was a work of art in the way Oliver designed it. His set consisted of the most magical Japanese forest that actually moved; the trees themselves seemed to come to life.’ (quoted in Pinkham, R., ed. <i>Oliver Messel: an exhibition held at the Theatre Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum</i>, 1983).","physicalDescription":"A set design for the forest in <i>Rashomon</i>, 1959. A view of a Japanese forest in murky blue and brown washes. Details of trees highlighted. Two figures are discernible in the foreground on the left.","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":"pencil","id":"x30347"},{"text":"gouache","id":"AAT70114"},{"text":"watercolour","id":"x33202"},{"text":"ink","id":"AAT15012"},{"text":"wash","id":"AAT11051"}],"techniques":[{"text":"drawing (image-making)","id":"AAT54196"},{"text":"painting (image making)","id":"AAT54216"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Charcoal, pencil, gouache, watercolour, ink and wash on paper","categories":[{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Designs","id":"THES48968"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2006BH6884"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES356267"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"set design","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1959","earliest":"1959-01-01","latest":"1959-12-31"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"S.213-2006","id":"O126412"},"association":"Model"}],"creditLine":"Acquired with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Art Fund and the Friends of the V&A","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"25","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"37.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"<i>Rashomon</i>, a play in two acts by Faye and Michael Kanin and adapted from Akira Kurosawa's film (1950) of the same name which in turn was based on a story by Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1915). Oliver Messel’s production was first produced by David Susskind and Hardy Smith at the Music Box Theatre, New York, on 27 January 1959. It was directed by Peter Glenville with music by Laurence Rosenthal and featured Claire Bloom, Noel Willman and Rod Steiger. Messel won an Antoinette Perry ‘Tony’ award for his set designs in 1959.\n\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":"Set design by Oliver Messel for the Forest in Fay Kanin and Michael Kanin's adaptation of <i>Rashomon</i>, Music Box Theatre, New York, 1959","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.250-2006"],"accessionNumberNum":"250","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2006,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"TM Rotation Number","id":"THES50368"},"number":"ROT 2313"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-08","recordCreationDate":"2006-08-04","availableToBook":true}}