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Oliver Messel
Rashomon - A 1950 costume design for the New York Theatre by Oliver Messel

1959

About the Item

OLIVER MESSEL (1904-1978) The Medium – Costume Design for Peter Glenville’s Rashomon, Performed at the Music Box, New York, 1959 Signed l.r.: Oliver Messel and inscribed u.r.: The Medium Watercolour and chalks over traces of pencil Framed 36 by 23 cm., 14 ¼ by 9 in. (frame size 59 by 45 cm., 23 ¼ by 17 ¾ in.) Provenance: Wright Hepburn Gallery, London Messel won a Tony Antoinette Award for his set for Rashomon, a play by Fay and Michael Kanin, 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, represented the decaying Rashomon gate and a barbaric bamboo jungle are like the illustrations for a macabre legend. Rashomon is an incantation of thing far away and long since forgotten.” (New York Times, 28 January 1959). Messel was also nominated for a Tony award for his costume designs in the production. 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.
  • Creator:
    Oliver Messel (1904 - 1978, British)
  • Creation Year:
    1959
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 14.18 in (36 cm)Width: 9.06 in (23 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    London, GB
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 27071stDibs: LU1028312313402
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