Masquerade

 Image  detail from Oliver Messel:In the Theater of Design

edited by Thomas Messel, Rizzoli

 Designed for Lord Faringdon's private theater at Buscot Park, Oxfordshire, England.

Masquerade with my favorite mask maker.

 Oliver Messel the designer at work.

Masks designed by Oliver Messel for Lady Mendl (Elsie De Wolfe) and her two attendants,

for the Flora and Fauna Ball given by Etienne de Beaumont.

From Bals, Assouline

 Bedroom scene from Helen
Charles Cochran's Play La Belle Helen. Oliver Messel's  elegant and original set designs
are to this day widely copied.

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For Halloween we are going to watch Suddenly Last Summer to see  

the film art direction of Oliver Messel at its best.

 

Another favorite film  (unrelated to Oliver Messel) is currently being celebrated in a fabulous exhibition in Paris.

Happy Halloween.