{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O127915"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O127915/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2019MD2516/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2019MD2516/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2019MD2516","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O127915/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O127915","accessionNumber":"S.371-2006","objectType":"Set design","titles":[{"title":"Caesar and Cleopatra","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"In 1944, designer Oliver Messel was released from his war duties in camouflage to work on the film <i>Caesar and Cleopatra</i>, adapted from George Bernard Shaw's play.   Messel was responsible for the costumes and the interior design of the sets, bringing all his imagination and ingenuity to creating Roman and Egyptian costumes and interiors in the context of the mid 1940s. The film was the most expensive British film to date, costing over £1m, and brought a welcome sense of extravagance and colour into a drab post-war world.  Surprisingly, given his sense of colour, he never worked on another colour film. \r\n\r\nThe design for the music room in Cleopatra’s palace is based on photographs of Classical and Egyptian architecture.   The <i>Daily Telegraph</i> critic said ‘The sets are gigantic.  Oliver Messel’s décor and costumes are richly imaginative in Technicolor, for once agreeably restrained.  Made though it was in difficult war-time conditions, <i>Caesar and Cleopatra</i> is as spectacular as anything the screen has ever given us.’\r\n\r\nOliver Messel (1904-1978) was Britain's leading theatre designer from the early 1930s to the mid 1950s, working in every aspect of entertainment - ballet, drama, film, musical, opera and revue - as well as in interior decoration and textile design.  His lavish, painterly and romantic designs informed by period styles, were perfectly in tune with his times and earned him an international reputation.  By 1960, however, Messel's style had become unfashionable, having no sympathy with the new 'kitchen sink' school of theatre.  He increasingly concentrated on non-theatrical painting and designing and eventually retired to the Caribbean, where he began a new career designing and building highly idiosyncratic luxury villas.","physicalDescription":"Set design by Oliver Messel for the elevation of the music room in a film production of Caesar and Cleopatra.  A design in ink and wash on paper attached to one board.","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":"pencil","id":"x30347"},{"text":"ink","id":"AAT15012"},{"text":"wash","id":"AAT11051"}],"techniques":[{"text":"drawing (image-making)","id":"AAT54196"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Charcoal, pencil, watercolour, ink and wash on paper","categories":[{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Designs","id":"THES48968"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2019MD2516"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"009","id":"THES356287"},"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":"ca. 1945","earliest":"1940-01-01","latest":"1949-12-31"},"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":"39.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"72.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"The film of George Bernard Shaw's play <i>Caesar and Cleopatra</i>, starring Claude Rains and Vivien Leigh, was directed by Gabriel Pascal and released in England in 1945.  Messel designed the costumes and the set interiors.  It was the only colour film which he designed.\r\nLord Snowdon, Oliver Messel's nephew, inherited Messel's remaining designs and artefacts (many designs were sold or given away during the artist's lifetime).  The collection was briefly stored in a disused chapel in Kensington Palace before being placed on indefinite loan to the V&A Theatre Museum from 1981.  The Oliver Messel Collection was purchased from Lord Snowdon in 2005 with the aid of the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Art Fund and the Friends of the V&A.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Elevation for the Banquet Room designed by Oliver Messel ca.1945 for the film <i>Caesar and Cleopatra</i>, adapted from the play by George Bernard Shaw.","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":"Designed for the film of George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, released in England in 1945.\n\nReason 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.371-2006"],"accessionNumberNum":"371","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2006,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"TM Rotation Number","id":"THES50368"},"number":"ROT 5968"},{"type":{"text":"TM Rotation Number","id":"THES50368"},"number":"ROT 5968"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-09","recordCreationDate":"2006-09-21","availableToBook":true}}