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Set design
Oliver Hilary Sambourne Messel, born 1904 - died 1978 - Enlarge image
Set design
- Place of origin:
London, England (designed)
- Date:
1959 (designed)
- Artist/Maker:
Oliver Hilary Sambourne Messel, born 1904 - died 1978 (designer)
- Materials and Techniques:
Charcoal, pencil, Chinese white, ink and wash on paper
- Credit Line:
Acquired with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Art Fund and the Friends of the V&A.
- Museum number:
S.387-2006
- Gallery location:
In Storage
Great Britain’s leading theatre designer from the early 1930s to the mid 1950s, Oliver Messel (1904-1978) won international acclaim for his lavish, painterly and poetic designs informed by period styles. His work spans ballet, drama, film, musical, opera and revue. Messel’s traditional style of theatre design became unfashionable from the mid 1950s onwards, and he increasingly concentrated on painting, interior and textile design, including designing luxury homes in the Caribbean.
Messel designed costumes and sets for Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s film adaptation of Tennessee Williams's play Suddenly Last Summer (1959). The disturbing story about the mystery surrounding the death of Sebastian, the poet son of the rich, eccentric Mrs. Venable, gave Messel the opportunity to create a fantastic, exotic garden which contributed to the dark atmosphere of the film. It starred Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn and Montgomery Clift, and was nominated for several Oscars, including two Oscars for Messel’s set designs.
Mrs. Venable tends the garden of her late son Sebastian. It forms a backdrop to key scenes, contributing to the unsettling atmosphere of the film. Messel achieved an exotic, strange look to the garden by using a mixture of natural and man-made materials.
