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Oliver MesselOliver Messel - Costume Design for Vivien Leigh in Caesar and Cleopatra1945
1945
About the Item
OLIVER MESSEL
(1904-1978)
Blue Costume Design for Caesar and Cleopatra - 1945
Signed l.r.: Oliver Messel
Watercolour and chalks heightened with white and gold paint
Framed
14 ¼ by 9 ½ in., 36 by 24 cm.
(Frame size 26 by 21 ¼ in., 66 by 54 cm.)
Born in London, Messel was the grandson of the illustrator Linley Sambourne. After Eton he studied art at the Slade School of Art and by the early 1930s had established himself as one of Britain’s principal stage designers. Initially working for the Cochran Revues, he went on to design for many theatrical, operatic, ballet and film productions. His books included Stage Designs and Costumes, 1933; Designs for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1957 and Delightful Food, 1958. He exhibited at the Leicester Galleries and Redfern Gallery and also designed interiors and gardens of the Dorchester Hotel, Flaxley Abbey, Gloucestershire and elsewhere as well as several houses and grounds in Barbados and Mustique. The Victoria & Albert Museum hold the majority of his design archives.
The present work is a costume design for the 1945 film Caesar and Cleopatra, directed by Gabriel Pascal and staring Claude Rains, Vivien Leigh, Stewart Granger and Flora Robson. Messel designed the costumes, props and interior decorations for what was billed as one of the most lavish movies of all times, costing over a million pounds. It was an amazing production to be achieved in a time of extreme austerity towards of the end of World War II, filming starting just a few days after D-Day. In addition to his meticulous historical research, at this time of rationing Messel had to show enormous resourcefulness and improvisation sourcing his materials and fabrics.
- Creator:Oliver Messel (1904 - 1978, British)
- Creation Year:1945
- Dimensions:Height: 14.18 in (36 cm)Width: 9.45 in (24 cm)
- Medium:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:London, GB
- Reference Number:
Oliver Messel
Born in London, his mother being the daughter of the Punch cartoonist Edward Linley Sambourne and his father a soldier and stockbroker. After Eton he studied art at the Slade under Henry Tonks; Rex Whistler was a fellow student. Although his studies concentrated on life drawings he also made papier mache and wax masks for student events and an exhibition of these masks at the Claridge Galleries in 1925 let to his first theatre design commission for the Diaghilev ballet production of Zeephyre et Flore. By the early 1930s had established himself as one of Britain’s principal designers for the stage. He went on to design for many theatrical, operatic, ballet and film productions becoming one of the most highly paid and sought after theatre designers in the world. His books included Stage Designs and Costumes, 1933; Designs for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1957 and Delightful Food, 1958. He held one-man exhibitions at the Leicester Galleries and Redfern Gallery, designed interiors and gardens of the Dorchester Hotel, Flaxley Abbey, Gloucestershire and elsewhere as well as several houses and grounds in Barbados and Mustique. The Victoria & Albert Museum hold the majority of his design archives.
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