Celebrating Nymans' place in the life of Oliver Messel

The Art of Illusion: The Theatrical World of Oliver Messel at Nymans runs until October 26.

From interior design to theatre props and film work, Oliver Messel’s creative life was influenced by his childhood spent at Nymans. He became Britain’s leading stage designer of the mid-20th-century and the exhibition marks the one hundredth anniversary of the start of his professional career.

Caroline Ikin, Nymans curator said: “If you are in the world of theatre and film and if you are a film buff particularly of the 1950s, you would have heard of him and you would think of him with some awe. In the 40s and 50s he was the go-to person for set design and theatre design. He was a figure to be reckoned with, and he often got higher billing than some of the stars. The stage was coming out to the Victorian era and he gave it a new impetus. He became famous for his white on white sets. Previously white was considered not a colour to use but he did. He took a new look at things and so many of his innovations had quite a big effect.”

And so much of that relates back to Nymans.

“He was a reflection of his age. After the war people were looking for something glamorous and romantic, and we're trying to bring that out in the exhibition. So much of what he did was inspired by growing up at Nymans. His mother had a real romantic taste. She completely remodelled it and she imprinted her taste on the building and on the furnishings. I think he was heavily influenced by his mother. They would also do lots of dressing up, the children taking part in May Day parades or amateur theatricals in the garden – and he ended up making a career of that.

“I would say that he was a very social person. He was one of the bright young things of the 1920s, that intellectual artistic set but he was also a great worker. They knew how to have fun, but he was also a perfectionist. He charmed people into doing what he wanted but I suspect he could be quite difficult but there was always that charm to him.

“We have got a lot of his letters that have survived. We have also been looking at his relationship with his sister Anne.”

The exhibition includes a vibrant portrait Oliver did of her dressed in a theatrical costume he had designed. Anne Messel became the Countess of Rosse on her marriage and the mother of Lord Snowdon who married Princess Margaret. The portrait hung in Anne’s home for many years but was bought by the National Trust in 2023. It has undergone meticulous conservation at the Royal Oak Foundation Conservation Studio at Knole.

“The portrait really reflects that relationship. She would have been in her 20s and that's another reason why it's so lovely. You think of her in her later years as this old woman living alone at Nymans but the painting shows her in her really glamorous early days."

There are still a number of descendants around and that's one of the reasons for the exhibition now: “One of those descendants suggested that the time was right to talk about Oliver and we had also acquired this portrait. Things just all came together. It's the biggest exhibition ever just focusing on Oliver though obviously he does tend to creep into the other things we do but we have now got the exhibition space to show this.”