IN 1966, Oliver Messel (1904-78), one of Britain's foremost stage designers, retreated to the Caribbean island of Barbados following a punishing theatre season. He was three decades into a stellar career that had seen him, among other things, disguise countryside pillboxes as haystacks, castles and cafés in the Second World War. Aged 62 and suffering from recurring arthritis, he would have been forgiven for taking early retirement or, at least, slowing down-but Barbados proved exactly the tonic he needed. He largely remained on the island-and on neighbouring Mustique-until his death 12 years later, designing and creating nine houses on the former and 18 on the latter, in spite of the fact that he had no formal architectural training. One such project, Fustic House, in the Barbadian parish of St Lucy, was described by former COUNTRY LIFE Architectural Editor Jeremy Musson (author of Fustic House & Estate-A Messel Masterpiece) as 'something out of a dream... one of those rare places, which once seen, is never forgotten' (COUNTRY LIFE, January 26, 2011).
Unsurprisingly, Messel's houses often took on theatrical qualities-proscenium arches replaced with open walls, gently curved, giant windows, and bi-fold shuttered doors. They were stage sets in their own right-beautiful to look at and look out from. Neither did the multi-hyphenate artist shy away from colour, inspired as he was by the saturated, tropical hues of the landscapes around him. 'Messel Green'-as it's now known-was its user's trademark, the 'Barbie Pink' of its day, daubed on shutters, ornamental bridges, awnings and woodwork.
この記事は Country Life UK の December 06, 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Country Life UK の December 06, 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Give it some stick
Galloping through the imagination, competitive hobby-horsing is a gymnastic sport on the rise in Britain, discovers Sybilla Hart
Paper escapes
Steven King selects his best travel books of 2024
For love, not money
This year may have marked the end of brag-art’, bought merely to show off one’s wealth. It’s time for a return to looking for connoisseurship, beauty and taste
Mary I: more bruised than bloody
Cast as a sanguinary tyrant, our first Queen Regnant may not deserve her brutal reputation, believes Geoffrey Munn
A love supreme
Art brought together 19th-century Norwich couple Joseph and Emily Stannard, who shared a passion for painting, but their destiny would be dramatically different
Private views
One of the best ways-often the only way-to visit the finest privately owned gardens in the country is by joining an exclusive tour. Non Morris does exactly that
Shhhhhh...
THERE is great delight to be had poring over the front pages of COUNTRY LIFE each week, dreaming of what life would be like in a Scottish castle (so reasonably priced, but do bear in mind the midges) or a townhouse in London’s Eaton Square (worth a king’s ransom, but, oh dear, the traffic) or perhaps that cottage in the Cotswolds (if you don’t mind standing next to Hollywood A-listers in the queue at Daylesford). The estate agent’s particulars will give you details of acreage, proximity to schools and railway stations, but never—no, never—an indication of noise levels.
Mission impossible
Rubble and ruin were all that remained of the early-19th-century Villa Frere and its gardens, planted by the English diplomat John Hookham Frere, until a group of dedicated volunteers came to its rescue. Josephine Tyndale-Biscoe tells the story
When a perfect storm hits
Weather, wars, elections and financial uncertainty all conspired against high-end house sales this year, but there were still some spectacular deals
Give the dog a bone
Man's best friend still needs to eat like its Lupus forebears, believes Jonathan Self, when it's not guarding food, greeting us or destroying our upholstery, of course
