Messel, Oliver (1904–1978). British theatre, film, and interior designer, painter, and socialite, born in London, grandson of the caricaturist Edward Linley Sambourne (1844–1910), chief cartoonist to
Punch, 1900–10. He was educated at Eton, from which he went to the Slade School, where he made a reputation for the head masks he designed for student parties. An exhibition of these was held in the Claridge Galleries, London, in 1925, leading to his first professional commission later that year—producing masks for
Diaghilev for a Ballets Russes production of
Zéphyr et Flore at the London Coliseum (the sets were by Georges
Braque). After this auspicious start, his advance was rapid, and by 1932 ‘Messel was established as one of the foremost stage designers in Britain, and his name attached to a production had become as great a draw as that of any “star” actor or actress’ (
DNB). In 1934 he published
Stage Designs and Costumes, his only book. Messel designed sets and costumes for works of various kinds, although generally at the lighter end of the scale, and he also worked for films, beginning with
The Scarlet Pimpernel in 1935. His style was sophisticated and fanciful, typically with much use of white. During the Second World War he served in the army, and after the war he branched out into interior design, notably with a number of rooms and suites at the Dorchester Hotel, London, in the early 1950s. His social connections also made him sought after as a designer for lavish parties and weddings. In 1966 he retired to Barbados, intending to turn more seriously to painting, but in fact he was soon greatly in demand as a designer of gardens and houses, both on Barbados and the neighbouring island of Mustique, a resort popular with the rich and privileged. In 1982 a large collection of Messel's work, covering virtually every production he worked on, was placed on longterm loan at the Theatre Museum, London, by his nephew Lord Snowdon ( Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1930– ), a photographer, designer, and documentary film-maker.
