COSTUME FOR CONSTANZIA IN ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEN SERAIL

Details

OLIVER MESSEL (1904-1978)
COSTUME FOR CONSTANZIA IN ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEN SERAIL
Signed 'Oliver Messel' (lower left) and inscribed 'Constanzia' (upper right) and further inscribed 'Costume for/Constanzia/in Entführung aus den Serail produced at Il Seraglio/Glyndebourne/Mozart Bicentenary/Constanzia was ??/by Mattiwilda Dobbs/All thoughts and wishes for/a Happy Birthday to Princess Margaret with love/Oliver' (on the backboard)
Pencil, chalk, and pink wash, heightened with bodycolour, gold and silver
14½ x 9½ in. (36.8 x 24.1 cm.)

Special notice

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Lot Essay

After leaving Eton College early, Oliver Messel attended the Slade School of Fine Art and by 1930 was one of Britain's principal stage designers. His career included operatic, ballet and film productions as well as Royal command performances.
The present painting depicts a costume for the Mozart Bicentenary celebrations at Glyndebourne in 1956 for which Messel produced Mozart's opera 'Die Entführung aus dem Serail' (The Escape from the Seraglio) with Mattiwilda Dobbs as Constanzia.

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