Not currently on display at the V&A

Iolanthe

Costume Design
1923 (designed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Iolanthe, or, The Peer and The Peri by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan was produced at the Savoy Theatre under the management of Richard D’Oyly Carte on Saturday 25th November 1882, until Tuesday 1st January 1884.

Sullivan was reluctant to be more famous for comic opera than for classical composition, but since he enjoyed the lifestyle it financed, began work on a score for Gilbert’s new libretto during the summer of 1882. Originally titled Perola and changed to Iolanthe at the last minute to maintain secrecy, Gilbert’s new libretto indulged his whimsical penchant bringing fairies to Westminster, whilst satirising the British parliamentary system, especially the House of Lords. As ever Gilbert meticulously planned the contrasting stage pictures made by his settings and characters including a fairy chorus and their Queen, a chorus of Peers, the Lord Chancellor, the banished fairy Iolanthe, and her half human son Strephon in love with the beautiful shepherdess Phyllis, the Lord Chancellor’s ward. With Sullivan’s equally contrasting pastoral and stirring music, brilliant lyrics and the added surprise of electric lights on the fairies’ foreheads, Iolanthe was another hit in London and New York, where D’Oyly Carte opened a production at the Standard Theatre the same night.

The artist, illustrator and theatre designer Norman Wilkinson (1882-1934) who called himself ‘Norman Wilkinson of Four Oaks’ to distinguish himself from the contemporary marine painter of the same name, was born in Four Oaks, a residential area of Birmingham, and studied at Birmingham School of Art from 1900-1903. He shared a studio in Paris with Maxwell Armfeld, and did book illustration as well as theatre design. He worked for Charles Frohman at the Duke of York’s Theatre in 1910 but became better known for his work on Harley Granville Barker’s productions at the Savoy Theatre, including Twelfth Night (1912), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1914). He also provided designs for productions by Nigel Playfair at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith and for C.B. Cochran, the Phoenix Society and the Stage Society.

Wilkinson designed new costumes for Phyllis, Strephon and the Fairies in Rupert D’Oyly Carte’s new production of Iolanthe at the Prince’s Theatre in 1924. He went on to become a governor of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, for which he designed A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1932) and Romeo and Juliet (1933).


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleIolanthe (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour and bodycolour over pencil on paper
Brief description
Costume design by Norman Wilkinson for Iolanthe in Act I of Iolanthe, Prince's Theatre, 1924
Physical description
Costume design by Norman Wilkinson for the title character in Act I of Iolanthe. Sketchy full length female figure, described as 'Rising from the water'. She wears a long green cloak spotted with small yellow flowers, annotated in pencil, upper right, as 'Silver gauze loose cloak appliqué with green tissue and green raffia with water crowsfoot flowers'. Signed and dated 1923.
Dimensions
  • Height: 38.8cm (approximately)
  • Width: 28.2cm (approximately)
Credit line
Given by Dame Bridget D'Oyly Carte.
The V&A wishes to acknowledge the generous support given by The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, which facilitated the cataloguing of the D’Oyly Carte Archive designs in 2015/16.
Summary
Iolanthe, or, The Peer and The Peri by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan was produced at the Savoy Theatre under the management of Richard D’Oyly Carte on Saturday 25th November 1882, until Tuesday 1st January 1884.

Sullivan was reluctant to be more famous for comic opera than for classical composition, but since he enjoyed the lifestyle it financed, began work on a score for Gilbert’s new libretto during the summer of 1882. Originally titled Perola and changed to Iolanthe at the last minute to maintain secrecy, Gilbert’s new libretto indulged his whimsical penchant bringing fairies to Westminster, whilst satirising the British parliamentary system, especially the House of Lords. As ever Gilbert meticulously planned the contrasting stage pictures made by his settings and characters including a fairy chorus and their Queen, a chorus of Peers, the Lord Chancellor, the banished fairy Iolanthe, and her half human son Strephon in love with the beautiful shepherdess Phyllis, the Lord Chancellor’s ward. With Sullivan’s equally contrasting pastoral and stirring music, brilliant lyrics and the added surprise of electric lights on the fairies’ foreheads, Iolanthe was another hit in London and New York, where D’Oyly Carte opened a production at the Standard Theatre the same night.

The artist, illustrator and theatre designer Norman Wilkinson (1882-1934) who called himself ‘Norman Wilkinson of Four Oaks’ to distinguish himself from the contemporary marine painter of the same name, was born in Four Oaks, a residential area of Birmingham, and studied at Birmingham School of Art from 1900-1903. He shared a studio in Paris with Maxwell Armfeld, and did book illustration as well as theatre design. He worked for Charles Frohman at the Duke of York’s Theatre in 1910 but became better known for his work on Harley Granville Barker’s productions at the Savoy Theatre, including Twelfth Night (1912), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1914). He also provided designs for productions by Nigel Playfair at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith and for C.B. Cochran, the Phoenix Society and the Stage Society.

Wilkinson designed new costumes for Phyllis, Strephon and the Fairies in Rupert D’Oyly Carte’s new production of Iolanthe at the Prince’s Theatre in 1924. He went on to become a governor of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, for which he designed A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1932) and Romeo and Juliet (1933).
Collection
Accession number
S.2376-2015

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Record createdMarch 22, 2016
Record URL
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