George Sheringham (1884 – 1937) British Interior designer

George Sheringham (1884 – 1937) was a British painter and theatre designer. He is known for designing for the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company in the 1930s.

Biography

He was born in London and had a brother, Hugh, an Angling Editor of The Field. He attended the King’s School, Gloucester, the Slade School of Fine Art (1899–1901), and the Sorbonne, Paris (1904–1906).

Painting and Illustrator

Sheringham first exhibited in Paris and later in Venice, Brussels, and Berlin. In one year, he held seven solo exhibitions in London. He participated in the society’s 1922 exhibit. In 1921, he worked with his brother Hugh on a book about fishing, The Book of the Fly Rod. He penned Drawing in Pen and Pencil (1922) with James Laver, Design in the Theatre (1927), and he co-edited Robes of Thespis, Costume Designs by Modern Artists (1928). His paintings were also a part of the Olympic painting competition held in 1932.

Decorator

As a decorator, Sheringham designed the music room at 40 Devonshire House, London; for the 8th Baron Howard de Walden (also Baron Seaford) to illustrate his Celtic poem, The Cauldron of Anwn; the ballroom at Claridge’s Hotel; and the Paris Exhibition of 1937. He also created designs used in home decor. Sheringham was among the first recipients of the prestigious Royal Designers for Industry award in 1937. He became known as a fan designer, too.

Stage Designer

Sheringham designed scenery and costumes for ballets, opera and straight theatre, including The Clandestine Marriage, The Skin Game, The Lady of the Camellias, Othello, Love in a Village, Derby Day, The Duenna, and the Stratford Memorial Theatre’s opening production of Twelfth Night, and Hamlet. In the theatre, he worked closely with the actor-manager Nigel Playfair.

For D’Oyly Carte, he designed new productions of H.M.S. Pinafore (1929); The Pirates of Penzance (1929); Patience (1929, with other designs contributed by Hugo Rumbold); Trial by Jury (costumes only) and Iolanthe (costumes only, 1932).

Later Years

Sheringham won a Grand Prix at the Paris Salon in 1925 for murals and theatrical design. An invalid from 1932, he continued to paint flowers.

On November 11, 1937, he died at 53 in his home in Hampstead, London.

Sources

Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing.

Wikipedia contributors. (2021, May 6). George Sheringham. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:00, June 7, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Sheringham&oldid=1021818866

Recommended Reading

Kristal, M., Schafer III, G., Williams, B. (2012). The Great American House: Tradition for the Way We Live Now. United States: Rizzoli. https://amzn.to/3FhcIVv

Ramstedt, F. (2020). The Interior Design Handbook. United Kingdom: Penguin Books Limited. https://amzn.to/3JaONIE

Shaping the American Interior: Structures, Contexts and Practices. (2018). United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis. https://amzn.to/3T9p9bH

Tanner, T. (2013). Early American Country Interiors. United States: Gibbs Smith, Publisher. https://amzn.to/3FeN5oy

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