Costume design

Physical description

Costume design by Hugh Stevenson for Richard II, showing faceless male figure with an ochre crown and holding an ochre sceptre in his left hand, swathed in a voluminous gown in red brown with, fitted across the shoulders, a deep white yoke set with black dashes indicating ermine.
The ochre paint is used to indicate gold braid or metal.

Date

1950 (painted)

Artist/maker

Stevenson, Hugh, born 1910 - died 1956 (costume designer)

Materials and Techniques

Pencil, ballpoint pen and gouache on paper

Marks and inscriptions

'Richard II'
'David King-Wood'
'felt'

Dimensions

Height: 558 mm, Width: 380 mm

Object history note

This is one of 25 designs by Hugh Stevenson for a programme of excerpts from Shakespeare devised for a British Council tour in the early 1950s. It was performed by a small company led by Walter Fitzgerald and called for costumes that would clearly indicate the different characters while allowing for quick changes. This Stevenson achieved by creating a basic costume in the Elizabethan style for each actor to which were added robes, tunics, overdresses or accessories.
The designs are part of the collection that came to the Museum from the dance historian and publisher Cyril Beaumont and may originally have formed part of the London Archives of the Dance.

Historical significance: A group of designs showing how a designer solves the problem of creating costumes for a programme of extracts from various Shakespeare plays (which means allowing for quick changes), by creating several basic costumes which can be adapted, or to which accessories can be added, to indicate specific characters

Descriptive line

Costume design by Hugh Stevenson for Richard II in a programme of scenes from Shakespeare, British Council tour, early 1950s

Materials

Paper; Pencil; Gouache; Ballpoint pen

Techniques

Painting; Drawing (image-making)

Subjects depicted

Costume; Richard II

Production Type

Unique

Collection code

T&P