{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1482793"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1482793/"}},"images":null,"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1482793","accessionNumber":"S.437-2018","objectType":"Costume design","titles":[{"title":"La Fille mal gardee","type":"generic title"},{"title":"The Wayward Daughter","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Costume designs by Osbert Lancaster for <i>La Fille mal gardée</i> by Frederick Ashton created for The Royal Ballet and first performed at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden on 28 January 1960. Lancaster designed the sets, front cloth and costumes.  The design shows Thomas as a prosperous farmer in Act III.  The role created by Leslie Edwards.\r\n\nAshton was inspired to create the ballet as a result of his passion for the Suffolk countryside and he was encouragement to create his new version by former ballerina, Tamara Karsavina, who had danced the role of Lise with the Imperial Russian Ballet. Karsavina taught Ashton some of the mime she had performed. Ashton worked closely with scholar Ivor Guest who unearthed various version of the score and identified the original engraving by Choffart from P.A. Baudouin’s Une Jeune fille querellée par sa mère (1764) which inspire the original version of the ballet by Jean Dauberval in 1989. John Lanchbery freely adapted the score by Ferdinand Hérold from 1828 incorporating a range of other material that had found its way into the ballet during the nineteenth century. Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée has become one of the most popular ballets of the twentieth century and continues to be danced throughout the world.\r\n\nAt the age of 11 Osbert Lancaster was taken by his mother to see <i>The Sleeping Princess</i> and its impact made him want to design for the stage. While at Oxford he performed with OUDS and provided caricatures of other performers for Isis. At the Slade School of Art he attended Vladimir Polunin’s course on stage design but it was not until 1951 he had his first opportunity to design for theatre when John Cranko invited him to design his Festival of Britain ballet <i>Pineapple Poll</i>.  Thereafter he designed for Covent Garden, Glyndebourne, the Old Vic and London Festival Ballet. As a designer his cartoonist’s ability slightly exaggerate detail while revealing an understanding of period brought him success. \r\n\r\nDiscussing his designs Lancaster noted that ‘the first question to be settled was that of period’ and he and Ashton agreed that the traditions of the ballet led it to be ‘far closer in spirit to the sentimental Biedermeyer romanticism of the [French] Restoration period, than to the aristocratic dairymaid tradition of le petit Trianon’. He aimed to present ‘the freshness and naïveté of Images d’Epinal, while at the same time drawing inspiration from the best of the French children’s-book illustrators flourishing at the turn of the century, notably than now-neglected artist, Boutet de Monvel.’ (Lancaster in Ivor Guest La Fille mal gardée  London 1960 pp.23-24).\r\n\r\nThe original costumes were made by the Production Wardrobe at the Royal Opera House with the costumes for the Cockerel and hens being made by Alick Shanks.\r\n\r\nThese designs appear also to have been used for staging by the Royal Danish Ballet under the title Den Slet Bevogdtede Datter in Copenhagen. \n\r\nThe V&A Theatre and Performance department hold further material on <i>La Fille mal gardée</i> in Ivor Guest’s Research Papers, the core collection and Nadia Nerina’s archive.\r\n","physicalDescription":"Costume design by Osbert Lancaster (1908-1986) for Thomas in Frederick Ashton's ballet <i>La fille mal gardée</i>.  The design shows Thomas as a prosperous farmer in a brown coat with velvet collar, blue-grey striped trousers tucked into his boots, a white waistcoat with gold buttons and chain, satin blue cravat with white polka dots and a fawn felt hat.  A further sketch of the jacket lapel and the stripe of the trousers has been inclued in the lower left.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Lancaster, Osbert (Sir)","id":"A13684"},"association":{"text":"designers","id":"AAT25190"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"watercolour","id":"x33202"},{"text":"pencil","id":"x30347"},{"text":"ink","id":"AAT15012"},{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"designing","id":"THES268626"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Watercolour, pencil and ink on paper","categories":[{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Designs","id":"THES48968"},{"text":"Theatre","id":"THES250537"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":[],"imageResolution":"none","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"008","id":"THES356599"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"costume design","id":"AAT163423"}],[{"text":"drawings","id":"AAT33973"}],[{"text":"paintings","id":"AAT33618"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"drawn","id":"x30545"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1960","earliest":"1960-01-01","latest":"1960-12-31"},"association":{"text":"drawn","id":"x30545"},"note":"probably"}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by the estate of David Dean","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"28.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"approx.","date":{"text":"01/10/2018","earliest":"2018-10-01","latest":"2018-10-01"},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"19.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"approx.","date":{"text":"01/10/2018","earliest":"2018-10-01","latest":"2018-10-01"},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'Father <u>2</u> <u>Farmer 2nd Cos</u>tume 5b'","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 ink and pencil along the upper edge of the paper. '5b' has been circled."},{"content":"'PIQUÉ / Satin / Felt / velvet collar / cloth / stripe pattern'","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 with arrows connecting to various parts of the costume."},{"content":"'Zalt / Vessel / Kai Lund'","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, lower left corner.  "},{"content":"'130 3 / 128 T / 112 [sade] / 99 [udu] / 74 [inde]'","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 ink on reverse.  Some words written unclearly."}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Costume design by Osbert Lancaster for Thomas, labelled no. 5b, for Act III in <i>La Fille mal gardée</i> at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1960","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.437-2018"],"accessionNumberNum":"437","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2018,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-09","recordCreationDate":"2019-03-09","availableToBook":true}}