Julia Trevelyan Oman
| Julia Trevelyan Oman CBE | |
|---|---|
| Born |
11 July 1930 Kensington, London, England |
| Died |
10 October 2003 (aged 73) Much Birch, Herefordshire, England |
| Cause of death | Pancreatic cancer |
| Occupation | Set designer in television, theatre, ballet & opera |
| Title | Lady Strong |
| Spouse(s) | Roy Strong |
| Parent(s) |
|
Julia Trevelyan Oman CBE, (1930–2003; formally Lady Strong) was an English television, theatre, ballet and opera set designer.
Trevelyan Oman was born on 11 July 1930 in Kensington, London, England.[1][2] Her father was Charles Chichele Oman, Keeper of Metalwork at the Victoria and Albert Museum (his father was the military historian and MP Sir Charles Oman), her mother the historian Joan Trevelyan,[3] daughter of Sir Ernest John Trevelyan.[4] She was educated at Wimbledon College of Art and then at the Royal College of Art.[2]
Among the BBC television programmes she worked on were Dixon of Dock Green and the Billy Cotton Band Show.[3] In 1966, she won the designer of the year award for her contribution to Jonathan Miller's television production of Alice in Wonderland.[4] In 1968 she won the Plays and Players “Best Set” award for Brief Lives, directed by Patrick Garland, with whom she worked on several occasions. She later designed sets for the Chichester Festival, Hamburg State Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival, the National Theatre, the Royal Opera House, and the Royal Shakespeare Company.[2]
She married the art historian Roy Strong on 10 September 1971,[1][2] at Wilmcote church, near Stratford-upon-Avon, with a special licence from the Archbishop of Canterbury. She was 41 and her husband 35.[3] They lived at Much Birch, Herefordshire, where they made one of Britain's largest post-war formal gardens, The Laskett. In 1995 they commissioned the artist Jonathan Myles-Lea to paint a 'portrait' of the house and gardens and the painting The Laskett was completed the same year. She and Strong also wrote books together.[1]
She appeared as a "castaway" on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 18 December 1971,[5] and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1986.[1]
She died at Much Birch, on 10 October 2003, of pancreatic cancer.[1]
A number of her paintings, including a self-portrait, are in the University of Bristol's Theatre Collection.[6]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 Alan Strachan "Obituary: Julia Trevelyan Oman", The Independent, 13 October 2003
- 1 2 3 4 "Julia Trevelyan Oman". Royal Opera House. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
- 1 2 3 "Julia Trevelyan Oman (Obituary)", The Daily Telegraph, 12 October 2003
- 1 2 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- ↑ "Desert Island Discs - Castaway : Julia Trevelyan Oman". BBC Online. BBC. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
- ↑ "Self Portrait". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
External links
- Paintings by Julia Trevelyan Oman at the Art UK site
- Julia Trevelyan Oman archive, Theatre Collection, University of Bristol