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Costume design for Cordelia in 'King Lear'

Costume Design
ca. 1955 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Costume design by Isamu Noguchi for Anthony Nicholls as Kent in William Shakespeare's play King Lear, Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company, Palace Theatre, London, and European Tour, 1955.

Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) was primarily a sculptor, although he was also known for designing the settings for the dance works of American modern-dance pioneer, Martha Graham. When he was commissioned to design King Lear for the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company in 1955, he had little experience of costume. However, director George Devine and his leading actor, John Gielgud, had been impressed by Noguchi's work for Graham. They believed that he could create appropriate designs for a stylised staging of Shakespeare's play, which, according to the programme note, 'would be free of historical or decorative associations so that the timeless, universal and mythical quality of the story may be clear.'

Instead of painting or sketching his costume designs, Noguchi produced little paper figures. Though subsequently mounted on paper with the makers' notes and instructions added, the figures were designed to stand upright, and the wire strut that supported each one is still attached.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleCostume design for Cordelia in 'King Lear' (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Card collage with pencil, watercolour and foil, mounted on paper
Brief description
Costume designs by Isamu Noguchi for Peggy Ashcroft as Cordelia in King Lear, 1955
Physical description
Two cut-out figures of coloured cards, mounted on paper with descriptive notes. Both figures wear a white dress with criss-crossing pencil lines and thin paper stuck over the bodice. The right-hand figure has a silver belt and wears her hair up in a ponytail.
Dimensions
  • Height: 24.6cm
  • Width: 19cm
  • Left figure height: 13.4cm
  • Right figure height: 13.5cm
Taken from Victoria & Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings Accessions 1960 and 1961 London: HMSO 1964
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'Peggy Ashcroft' (The mount bears descriptive notes and is inscribed in pencil)
  • '9086-XIII' (Numbered in ink)
  • Tied with white paper Japanese paper or stiff linen cloths (pencil note next to left figure)
  • Wheatlike gold (pencil note next to hair of right figure)
  • 12. Cordelia basic & " [ditto sign] (N). [start of note ripped off] basic & belt, headdress (N), shoulder pieces (N). (typewritten notes stuck to mount)
Object history
The design was created by Isamu Noguchi for the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company's 1955 touring production of Shakespeare's King Lear. The play was directed by George Devine, with John Gielgud as Lear. The production opened in Brighton on 6 June, then visited festivals in Vienna, Zurich, The Hague, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Berlin and Copenhagen, before playing at London's Palace Theatre, 21 July to 17 September. It then went to Hanover, Bremen, Hamburg, Oslo, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, and finally came to the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon, 29 November to 17 December.

The costumes were made by Carl Bonn and Colin Mackenzie.
Subject depicted
Summary
Costume design by Isamu Noguchi for Anthony Nicholls as Kent in William Shakespeare's play King Lear, Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company, Palace Theatre, London, and European Tour, 1955.

Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) was primarily a sculptor, although he was also known for designing the settings for the dance works of American modern-dance pioneer, Martha Graham. When he was commissioned to design King Lear for the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company in 1955, he had little experience of costume. However, director George Devine and his leading actor, John Gielgud, had been impressed by Noguchi's work for Graham. They believed that he could create appropriate designs for a stylised staging of Shakespeare's play, which, according to the programme note, 'would be free of historical or decorative associations so that the timeless, universal and mythical quality of the story may be clear.'

Instead of painting or sketching his costume designs, Noguchi produced little paper figures. Though subsequently mounted on paper with the makers' notes and instructions added, the figures were designed to stand upright, and the wire strut that supported each one is still attached.
Bibliographic reference
Victoria and Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings Accessions 1960 and 1961 London: HMSO, 1964
Collection
Accession number
E.5320-1960

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
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