- Percy Anderson
.
Life and career
Beginning with "
The Yeomen of the Guard " (1888), Anderson designed the costumes for all the original productions of theSavoy Operas . He continued to design costumes for D'Oyly Carte revivals in the early twentieth century, including for "Trial by Jury ,H.M.S. Pinafore ,The Pirates of Penzance ,Patience ,Iolanthe ,Princess Ida ,Ruddigore , The Yeomen of the Guard," and "The Gondoliers ." For Tree at His Majesty’s Theatre, Anderson designed "Twelfth Night ,The Merry Wives of Windsor , Richard II,King John ,A Midsummer Night’s Dream ,The Tempest ", and two plays byStephen Phillips , "Herod" and "Ulysses"."The Times ", 31 October 1928, p.16]Among Anderson’s other successes were "
Kismet " and "Chu Chin Chow " forOscar Asche ,Arthur Wing Pinero 's "Trelawny of the Wells, Véronique,Merrie England " at the Savoy, and productions of musical comedies forGeorge Edwardes . He designed the costumes forHenry James ’s ill-fated theatrical effort, "Guy Domville "; "The Times" was not impressed by either the play or the costumes. ["The Times", 7 January 1895, p. 13] He designed the costumes for the hit musical "San Toy " in 1899 and the hit British premiere of "The Merry Widow " in 1907 and for many successful musicals. [ [http://www.lily-elsie.com/shows.htm Article onLily Elsie , mentioning several musicals with costumes designed by Anderson] ] TheRoyal Opera House also commissioned Anderson to design costumes in 1900. [ [http://www.culturenet.hr/v1/english/attachments/760.pdf Biography of Milka Ternina describing Anderson costumes designed for her] ] Anderson's designs were also used in a number of Broadway productions. [ [http://ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=25206 Percy Anderson at the IBDB database] ]As a painter, Anderson achieved a modest success, and his portraits hang in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, the
Louvre , and theBritish Museum . [ [http://www.exploreart.co.uk/artistic_styles_details.asp?ArtistID=1&ArtisticStyleID=7 Portrait of Winifred Dickinson by Anderson] ] He illustrated the 1907 book, "Costume: Fanciful, Historical and Theatrical". ["Costume: Fanciful, Historical and Theatrical", compiled by Mrs. Eliza Davis Aria. (1907) New York: The Macmillan Company.]Anderson was in the 1910s closely associated with the young novelist
Hugh Walpole , who said of him, ‘He has all the knowledge and reminiscence of his age, and at the same time he doesn’t seem in the very least bit old.’ [Hart-Davis, p. 79] "The Times", in its obituary notice, said of Anderson that he escaped from the pedantry of his predecessors and paved the way in a most interesting manner forBakst ,Claud Lovat Fraser andGordon Craig .Anderson died in King’s College Hospital,
London , aged 77.Notes
[
right|thumb|220px|Anderson
Princess Ida ", 1921]References
*Hart-Davis, Rupert. "Hugh Walpole" (1997) Sutton Publishing, Stroud (orig Macmillan, London, 1952) ISBN 0 7509 1491-2
*Rollins, Cyril and R. John Witts. "The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in Gilbert and Sullivan Operas" (1961) London: Michael Joseph, Ltd.External links
* [http://www.dcita.gov.au/cgp/costdesignpages/costdsn04.html# Drawings of some Anderson designs]
* [http://lafayette.150m.com/wal2286b.html Anderson costume for Lysander in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Her Majesty's Theatre, 10 January 1900]
* [http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/utopia/html/index.html 1893 designs for "Utopia, Limited "]
* [http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/yeomen/html/index.html 1919 designs for "The Yeomen of the Guard "]
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