Design by Oliver Messel for nymphs turning into white roses in a projected film of The Sleeping Beauty, ca.1950.

A concept for a film of Sleeping Beauty, ca. 1950. A charcoal, ink, wash and kaolinite sketch of a ballerina (nymph) and white roses.

Acquired with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Art Fund and the Friends of the V&A

Concepts for a film of The Sleeping Beauty which was never made. Oliver Messel first designed costumes and sets for a Sadler's Wells (now Royal) Ballet production at the Royal Opera House, London on 20 February 1946. This performance marked the re-opening of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as a theatre after its war-time use as a dance hall. It was also performed on 9 October, 1949 at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, the production with which the Royal Ballet conquered New York.
It was revised on a number of occasions most notably in 1952 and 1960 when several of the costumes as well as choreography and the production were reworked and was mounted in 1959 for the Royal Ballet Touring Company. It remained in performance by the Royal Ballet companies for twenty five years. Sarah Woodcock said of this production “The Sleeping Beauty was to be Messel’s biggest and most enduring production … The production was performed nearly one thousand one hundred and fifty times, from London to Los Angeles, from Leeds to Leningrad, becoming the Company’s ‘signature ballet’.” (Pinkham, ed., 1983).
Lord Snowdon, Oliver Messel's nephew, inherited Messel's theatre designs and other designs and artefacts. The designs were briefly stored in a disused chapel in Kensington Palace before being housed at the V&A from 1981 on indefinite loan. The V&A Theatre Museum purchased the Oliver Messel collection from Lord Snowdon in 2005.

Historical significance: Messel's costume and set designs for the Sadler's Wells Ballet production of The Sleeping Beauty in 1946 became the definitive stage designs for the ballet, enduring many revivals to 1970.

Reason For Production: Commission

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.

The Sleeping Beauty, first performed by the Sadler's Wells (now Royal) Ballet in 1946, is Messel's most enduring production in Great Britain. He designed over one thousand costumes for the many revivals of this production between 1946 and 1970. The fanciful costumes and sets are inspired by the work of artists and stage designers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

He also produced concepts for a film production of the ballet during the 1950s which never materialised. Choreographic notes preserved with the designs indicate that he intended the film to adhere closely to the ballet, whilst exploiting cinematic special effects to enhance the magic of the story, such as ballerina nymphs turning into white roses.

S.515-2006