Oliver Messel

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Oliver Hilary Sambourne Messel CBE (born January 13, 1904 in London - Paddington ; † July 13, 1978 in Maddox House near Bridgetown , Barbados ) was a British architect, fashion designer, costume designer and set designer for stage and film. As Lord Snowdon's uncle, Messel was also related to Queen Elizabeth II.

Education and theater work

Messel, son of a wealthy, long-established English family, received his education in Eton and attended the Slade School of Fine Art . He quickly developed into one of the most versatile and respected creative artists in his country. Messel began as a portrait painter, but soon devoted himself to stage design. He created both sets for plays and sets for ballets. On top of that, he designed numerous theatrical costumes. Since 1925 his work has been presented in countless exhibitions.

He had a relationship with the English art collector and patron Peter Watson , who toured Europe with him in 1930.

Since 1936 he has also frequently designed for England's most famous theater, the Old Vic Theater . In addition, he was responsible for various opera sets; some were part of so-called Royal Theater Performances on the occasion of visits by foreign state guests (for example in 1950 at a special performance in honor of the President of France and in 1954 in honor of the Swedish king). Oliver Messel has also designed Broadway performances several times since the mid-1930s , including Die Unschuld vom Lande , Gigi , Rashomon and Romeo and Juliet . He received the Tony Award for his design of the musical House of Flowers .

Drafts for the movie

Messel's output to the cinema is sparse and of high quality. His specialty were costume and decoration-intensive historical and fantasy materials as well as literary adaptations. His buildings and costumes designed in 1946 for the Tchaikovsky ballet Sleeping Beauty with Margot Fonteyn were the subject of a 135-minute video in 2006. At the end of the 1940s, Oliver Messel largely ended his activities there; in 1959 he returned to film for the last time last summer to design the buildings for Suddenly . Messel received an Oscar nomination for this work .

further activities

Messel was also active in classical architecture and interior design even before 1959. For example, he designed a suite in the elegant London luxury hotel 'The Dorchester'. During the war he was tasked with camouflaging important military installations such as bunkers so that the German air force could no longer identify them as targets .

Retreat to Barbados

Since he left film, Oliver Messel, suffering from arthritis , settled in Barbados in 1959 because of the warm climate. There he acquired a largely unadorned beach house, which he converted into a luxurious and elegantly furnished place ( Maddox House ) in the years to come . Other luxury properties in Barbados, including Leamington House, Crystal Springs, Cockade House, Alan Bay and Fustic House, have also been redesigned or redesigned. A noble friend, the British businessman Colin Tennant , persuaded Messel to design all of the residential buildings on the privately owned neighboring island of Mustique . Between 1960 and 1978, the year Messel died, around 30 designs were created, of which 18 have so far been implemented. Typical of the Caribbean Messel style are the patios , verandas and the column architecture, which are open to the outside .

Filmography (complete)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Prodger: "Queer Saint" Peter Watson left his mark on British culture by bankrolling artworld giants , in: The Independent , April 29, 2015, online
  2. ↑ Messel designs on Barbados in cotedetexas.blogspot.de

literature

  • The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theater, edited by Phyllis Hartnoll and Peter Found. Oxford / New York 1992, p. 313.
  • Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 5: L - N. Rudolf Lettinger - Lloyd Nolan. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 411.
  • Oliver Messel: In the Theater of Design , Edited by Thomas Messel. London 2011.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Messel, Oliver
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Messel, Oliver Hilary Sambourne (full maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British fashion and costume designer
DATE OF BIRTH January 13, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH London Paddington
DATE OF DEATH July 13, 1978
Place of death Maddox House near Bridgetown , Barbados