John Piper C.H. (British, 1903-1992)Set Design for A Midsummer Night's Dream
watercolour, chalk, gouache, ink and acetate sheet
44 x 76cm (17 5/16 x 29 15/16in).注脚Provenance
With Marlborough Fine Art, London, where acquired by the previous owner
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Exhibited
London, Arts Council Gallery, organised by the Arts Council of Great Britain, Stage Design in Great Britain Since 1945, 1961, cat.no.116, (as Midsummer Night's Dream: Four Cutcloths & Permanent Backcloth): this exhibition travelled to Coventry, Belgrade Theatre; Brighouse Art Gallery; Exeter, Royal Albert Memorial Museum; Brighton, Brighton Art Gallery; Guildford, Guildford House; Middlesburgh, Middlesburgh Municipal Art Gallery; Leicester, Leicester Museum and Art Gallery; Whitworth, Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery and Nottingham, Midland Group Gallery
Chichester, Chichester Antiques Ltd, The Painter and the Stage, 23 July-4 August 1962, cat.no.57
Cologne, Baukunst Galerie, John Piper, 24 September-19 November 1965, cat.no.97

John Piper first began to design for the stage in 1938, when he was asked to create a backdrop for Trial of a Judge, the play by Stephen Spender, at the Unity Theatre. Further commissions were to follow, including one for The Rape of Lucretia at Glyndebourne in 1946. This was the first of many collaborations with Benjamin Britten, and the present work is related to Piper's commission to provide the set and costume designs for Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1960. The production premiered at the Aldeburgh Festival, before being performed at Covent Garden with the English Opera Group, produced by Sir John Gielgud and conducted by George Solti, in 1961. The present work appears to be a smaller, three-dimensional version of the final design according to images which survive of the production. It evokes the enchanted forest of the opera's setting wonderfully, with stars and lights twinkling in the canopy overhead, set against a deep blue background.