Oilver Messel Portrait of a Young Man

Oil on canvas, signed and dated 'Oliver Messel 1930' on the stretcher

Image size: 30 x 25 inches (76.2 x 63.4 cm)

Original frame

Oliver Messel was born to Leonard and Maud Messel, née Sambourne, on the 13 January 1904 and was the youngest of three children. The Messels originated from a line of German Jewish bankers on Leonard’s side, however, both family lines boast a number of artistic influences, including Maud’s father. They were also affiliated with artists and writers and were keen collectors of art, filling their home with textiles, paintings and collections of European and Asian fans from travels abroad.

Oliver was schooled at Eton but rather than going up to university was encouraged by family friends, gallery owner Archie Propert and painter and sculptor Glyn Philpot, to attend art school. In 1922 he enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he studied under Henry Tonks. Here, he met the artist Rex Whistler with whom he remained firm friends until Whistler’s death in WW2.

Upon leaving the Slade in 1924 Oliver was apprenticed to the studio of portrait artist John Wells, where he learnt various Old Master painting techniques, and met artists such as Jacob Epstein, Augustus John and William Orpen.

Messel designed masks, headdresses and costumes for ballets, working with Porter and Noel Coward. He then moved onto opera and film. His first opera was in 1940 for Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Royal Opera House, followed by a series of productions at the newly founded Glyndebourne Opera House in Sussex. He worked on over eight different feature films including Romeo and Juliet, 1936, directed by George Cukor.

As with so many of his generation, Oliver’s life was significantly affected by WW2. In 1940 his artistic abilities were put to use as a Camouflage Officer in the Royal Engineers, learning various painting techniques for hiding buildings and vehicles. His skills were also used locally, disguising pillboxes in North Somerset.

Having started his artistic career as a portrait apprentice, capturing the faces of family and friends, Oliver continued to develop this practice until the end of his life.  His style is said to have been influenced by Glyn Philpot, the Messel’s family friend who encouraged Oliver from an early age in his pursuit of art and design. His most prolific period came in the 1950s during which he produced over 50 portraits, which were shown in exhibitions in New York, London and Barbados.

He continued to paint after moving to the Caribbean in 1966, capturing society figures and the rich and famous including fashion designer Carolina Herrera and Bianca Jagger. His style remained unchanged throughout his career, using the same soft painterly strokes and subtle palette as in his theatre designs. It was here that he embraced a new career envisioning architectural concepts for private houses, hotels and public buildings, utilising his experience with interior design to furnish them with bespoke items of furniture and textiles.

Oliver’s life was also affected by social injustice. He was a gay man living at a time when his sexuality was deemed a criminal offence. As a man of wealth and connections he was able to be relatively open about his sexuality amongst family and friends, however, this would not have been the conditions under which most gay men and women lived at the time. Despite his relative openness, his life-long partner Vagn Riis-Hansen has not always been acknowledged in biographical accounts of Oliver's life. Their relationship is now recognised by the National Trust in their interpretation of the Messel family history, including Vagn in the family tree.

Oliver Messel died in Barbados on the 13 July 1978.