Skip to main content

Oliver Messel Art

British, 1904-1978
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.
to
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
8,199
2,807
2,504
1,663
1
1
Artist: Oliver Messel
Portrait of a Young Man Oil Painting Celebrated 20th Century Artist
By Oliver Messel
Located in London, GB
Oliver Messel 1904 - 1978 Portrait of a Young Man Oil on canvas, signed and dated 'Oliver Messel 1930' (on the stretcher) Image size: 30 x 25 inches (76.2 x 63.4 cm) Original frame Oliver Messel was born to Leonard and Maud Messel, née Sambourne, on the 13 January 1904 and was the youngest of three children. The family moved to Nymans, the Messel family home in Sussex, from nearby Balcombe in 1915. The house remained in the family until 1953 when it was bequeathed to the National Trust, following a fire in 1947 which destroyed a large portion of the house. The Messels originated from a line of German Jewish bankers on Leonard’s side, however, both family lines boast a number of artistic influences, including Maud’s father. Maud was brought up at 18 Stafford Terrace, Kensington (now known as the Linley Sambourne House Museum), amongst collections of antique porcelain and eighteenth-century furniture, and with a host of artistic visitors such as Henry Irving and Oscar Wilde. Oliver’s own upbringing appears to be influenced by his mother's, as the Messel family were also affiliated with artists and writers and were keen collectors of art, filling their home with textiles, paintings and collections of European and Asian fans from travels abroad. It was amongst such treasures that Oliver, Anne and Linley spent their childhood, in addition to the beauty of Nyman’s extensive gardens. Oliver was schooled at Eton but rather than going up to university was encouraged by family friends, gallery owner Archie Propert and painter and sculptor Glyn Philpot, to attend art school. In 1922 he enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he studied under Henry Tonks. Here, he met the artist Rex Whistler with whom he remained firm friends until Whistler’s death in WW2. Upon leaving the Slade in 1924 Oliver was apprenticed to the studio of portrait artist John Wells, where he learnt various Old Master painting techniques, and met artists such as Jacob Epstein, Augustus John and William Orpen. Whilst at the Slade Oliver developed his interest in Papier Mâché masks, a pastime popular amongst many art students at the time. Whilst apprenticed to artist John Wells several of Oliver’s masks were exhibited at the Claridge Gallery, London, alongside pieces by Whistler and other young artists. These were seen by Serge Diaghilev, director of the Ballet Russes, and Charles B. Cochran, a theatrical producer, both of whom made Oliver offers of work. His first job in the theatre was creating masks for the Ballets Russes’ Zéphyr et Flore, 1925, designed by the French artist Georges Braque, followed by numerous musical revues for Cochran, including Wake Up and Dream!, 1929, with music by Cole Porter. It was during these revues, working with Porter and Noel Coward, that Oliver also began to design headdresses and costumes. In 1932 he was rewarded with his first full commission to design both costume and sets for Helen!, directed by Max Reinhardt. The production design is still celebrated today for its innovative approach and ground-breaking ‘white on white’ aesthetic, which referenced ‘Greek temples, Rococo drapes, Baroque colonnades and Louis XIV carousels’. The success of Helen! led to further offers within the theatre including Reinhardt’s version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Old Vic in 1937, starring Vivien Leigh as Titania and Robert Helpmann as Oberon, the Jean Cocteau play The Infernal Machine in 1940, and Christopher Fry’s translation of Jean Anouilh’s Ring Round the Moon, 1950. One of Oliver’s best-known productions during this period was the Russian ballet The Sleeping Beauty, performed by Sadler’s Wells Ballet in 1946 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Encompassing over 200 costumes and four set changes, Oliver’s romantic designs were celebrated for bringing colour back to post-war London, and variations on his designs are still used today. Additional designs for the ballet included Comus in 1940, for which he was released from war duties, and Homage to the Queen, choreographed by Frederick Ashton and performed in 1953 for the Queen’s coronation. His first opera was in 1940 for Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Royal Opera House, followed by a series of productions at the newly founded Glyndebourne Opera House in Sussex, for which Oliver also designed the proscenium arch. He triumphed in 1956 designing a season of four different productions for their Mozart bicentennial, also providing illustrations for the programme covers. His popularity also spread beyond theatre to film, were he worked on over eight different feature films including Romeo and Juliet, 1936, directed by George Cukor. During a three-month research trip to Italy Oliver collected over 3,000 reference images including postcards of artwork by Piero della Francesca, Giovanni Bellini and Leonardo da Vinci, along with prints and photographs of textiles and architectural features. A production of Gabriel Pascal’s Caesar and Cleopatra, 1946, starring Vivien Leigh and Claude Rains, was celebrated for Oliver’s ability to recreate the opulence and luxury of ancient Egypt under the constraints of wartime rationing. Such was his skill that Vivien Leigh in a letter to Oliver declared that “I have of course told Pascal that nobody in the world must do the costumes except you.” He was later nominated for an Academy Award for his work on his final film Suddenly, Last Summer, 1959; an adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ American Southern Gothic mystery. Having started his artistic career as a portrait apprentice, capturing the faces of family and friends, Oliver continued to develop this practice until the end of his life.  His style is said to have been influenced by Glyn Philpot, the Messel’s family friend who encouraged Oliver from an early age in his pursuit of art and design. His most prolific period came in the 1950s during which he produced over 50 portraits, which were shown in exhibitions in New York, London and Barbados. The exhibitions included both well-known faces and anonymous sitters captured on Oliver’s travels, and a number of these works have entered private collections. He continued to paint after moving to the Caribbean in 1966, capturing society figures and the rich and famous including fashion designer Carolina Herrera and Bianca Jagger. His style remained unchanged throughout his career, using the same soft painterly strokes and subtle palette as in his theatre designs. By far his greatest contribution in addition to theatre and film was Oliver’s interior and architectural designs. Another, much celebrated commission included Rayne shoe shop in Old Bond Street, where he created jewel-like interiors using the same practice of scaled models as his set designs. Other notable interior designs include those for Norwich and Bath Assembly Rooms, Flaxley Abbey in Gloucestershire, Rosehill Theatre in Cumbria and the Reader’s Digest offices in Paris. However, upon moving to Barbados in 1966, Oliver embraced a new career envisioning architectural concepts for private houses, hotels and public buildings, utilising his experience with interior design to furnish them with bespoke items of furniture and textiles. His first project was Maddox, the deserted eighteenth-century plantation house bought by himself and his partner Vagn Riis-Hansen in 1964. The existing building and gardens were remodelled to Oliver’s designs embracing an inherent theatricality with views out to sea. These were framed by terraces and verandas which extended out from the living rooms creating what is often referred to as a Caribbean style of ‘indoor-outdoor’ living. For the woodwork he used a shade of green that is now known as ‘Messel green’ and often associated with the island of Barbados. Oliver was born into a wealthy family; he travelled extensively and was exposed to art and culture from a young age. A privileged youth, his name is often mentioned amongst the ‘Bright Young Things’, for whom costume parties at country houses and jaunts to Europe on a whim became a thing of fable. This informal group included people such as Cecil Beaton (a life-long friend whom Oliver first met at Eton), Lord Berners, Noel Coward, John Betjeman, Harold Acton, Nancy Mitford, Edith Sitwell, Stephen Tennant...
Category

20th Century Modern Oliver Messel Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Related Items
Spanish grape picker oil on canvas painting
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Lafuente - Grape harvester - Oil on canvas Spanish school signed "Lafuente". Oil measures 61x50 cm. Frameless.
Category

1950s Modern Oliver Messel Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

The Reader by Alexandre de Spengler - Oil on canvas 54x73 cm
By Alexandre De Spengler
Located in Geneva, CH
Alexandre de Spengler (1893–1973) was a Swiss painter and engraver active in Geneva and Paris. He is known for his land and seascapes, as well as...
Category

1950s Modern Oliver Messel Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Vintage American School Modernist Interior Scene Portrait Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Impressive early American modernist interior scene oil painting. Framed. Oil on board. Signed. Image size, 28 by 22 inches.
Category

1950s Modern Oliver Messel Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Early 20th century Art Deco Male nude oil painting of Narcissus
By George Frederick Hinchcliff
Located in Harkstead, GB
An incredibly striking study of the male form with the figure set against a colourful background with stylised organic forms. Attractively framed, the painting is ready to be hung an...
Category

1930s Modern Oliver Messel Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Antique American Modernist Interior Scene Woman Portrait Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Finely painted American modernist portrait painting by Louis George Bouche (1896 - 1969) . Framed. Oil on canvas. Signed verso. Image s...
Category

1930s Modern Oliver Messel Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American Modernist Framed Male Portrait New England Flannel Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Nicey painted American modernist portrait oil painting. Framed. Oil on board. Image size, 8H by 10L.
Category

1940s Modern Oliver Messel Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Rare Early Antique American School Fauvist Woman Portrait Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist portrait oil painting. Oil on canvas, lain to board. Framed. Very finely painted and a rare fauvist palette. No signature found.
Category

1920s Modern Oliver Messel Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Pensive Woman oil on canvas painting european art
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Title: Pensive Woman Artist: Vicente Oliver (1896–1970) Technique: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 18.1 x 15.0 in (46 x 38 cm) Support: Unframed canvas Date: Mid-20th century Signatu...
Category

1930s Modern Oliver Messel Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Otto Hake Signed American Modernist Woman Portrait Framed Original Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Nice modernist portrait for sale here. Oil on board. Signed. Nicely framed. Image size, 9L x 10H.
Category

1920s Modern Oliver Messel Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American School Signed Mediterranean Woman Dog Portrait Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American signed modernist oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed. Image size, 30L x 42H.
Category

1930s Modern Oliver Messel Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Water Carriers" by Armand Cacheux - Oil on Canvas - 132x100 cm
By Armand Cacheux
Located in Geneva, CH
Armand Cacheux (1868–1965) was a Swiss painter and engraver born in Geneva. He studied at the Geneva School of Fine Arts under Barthélemy Menn and Hugues Bovy, and at the Geneva Scho...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Oliver Messel Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American Modernist Framed Flower Girl Portrait Signed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Modernist portrait and landscape oil painting. Framed. Oil on canvas. Signed. Image size, 18H by 14L.
Category

1960s Modern Oliver Messel Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Previously Available Items
Oliver Messel - Costume Design for Vivian Leigh as Cleopatra - 1945
By Oliver Messel
Located in London, GB
OLIVER MESSEL (1904-1978) Costume Design for Vivian Leigh in Caesar and Cleopatra - 1945 Signed l.r.: Oliver Messel, inscribed u.r.: Cleopatra at her party in Rome 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...
Category

1940s Realist Oliver Messel Art

Materials

Watercolor

The Dancer - 20th Century British painting by Oliver Messel
By Oliver Messel
Located in London, GB
OLIVER MESSEL (1904-1978) Group of six paintings: Dancer The Medium Ceasar and Cleopatra Costume Design Ceasar and Cleopatra Costume Design Ceasar and ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Realist Oliver Messel Art

Materials

Oil, Watercolor

"Juliet's Bedroom" Watercolour & Gouache 1936 MESSEL, Oliver
By Oliver Messel
Located in Bristol, CT
Oliver Hilary Sambourne Messel (13 January 1904 – 13 July 1978) was an English artist and one of the foremost stage designers of the 20th century. Juliet's Bedroom from the Estate o...
Category

1930s Oliver Messel Art

Materials

Watercolor, Gouache

Figaro - 1950s British Costume Design for Opera by Oliver Messel
By Oliver Messel
Located in London, GB
OLIVER MESSEL (1904-1978) Figaro – The Barber of Seville, 1954 Signed l.r.: Messel Watercolour and chalks Framed 33 by 21.5 cm., 13 by 8 ½ in. (frame...
Category

1950s Realist Oliver Messel Art

Materials

Watercolor

Theatrical Lady in Costume by Sir Oliver Messel
By Oliver Messel
Located in Bristol, CT
Original Oliver Messel (1904-1978) pencil signed (LR) watercolour with gouache highlights depicting a fashionable lady in her theatrical costume. Image sz: 14 1/4"H x 9 3/4" in custom J. Pocker & Son frame! Artist Bio: Oliver Hilary Sambourne Messel, (1904-1978) attended Eton College and the Slade School of Fine Art at University College of London, the UK’s leading art and design educational institution. He started his illustrious career as a portrait painter and then evolved into a set and costume designer for theater, opera, ballet and film. Messel's first professional commission was for the ballet Zephyr and Flora (1925). By the early 1930s, Messel was established as one of the foremost stage designers in Britain with an imaginative flair and highly-stylized approach. His work on the film Romeo and Juliet (1936) earned him two Oscar nominations. Messel’s most famous production was The Sleeping Beauty designed for the Sadler’s Wells (now Royal) Ballet in 1946. Messel was inventive, practical and entirely theatrical. Endlessly seeking perfection, he supervised every detail. Before creating anything, he immersed himself in the play - in the overall mood and the director’s interpretation. He then created the settings to reflect it. He became the toast of London’s theatre set, with legions of talented friends including Hollywood stars. Messel was also a favorite uncle to Tony Armstrong...
Category

Mid-20th Century Other Art Style Oliver Messel Art

Materials

Watercolor, Gouache

Oliver Messel art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Oliver Messel art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Oliver Messel in paint, watercolor, fabric and more. Not every interior allows for large Oliver Messel art, so small editions measuring 10 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of John Sergeant, Margaret Sweet Johnson, and Hubert Hennes. Oliver Messel art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $750 and tops out at $3,185, while the average work can sell for $1,910.

Artists Similar to Oliver Messel

Recently Viewed

View All