'', 1917 Anderson was born on 22 March 1851 at
Willesden, North West London. His first significant production was the comic opera
Lady of the Locket, composed by
William Fullerton Jr. with a libretto by
Henry Hamilton. Beginning with
The Yeomen of the Guard (1888), Anderson designed the costumes for all the original productions of the
Savoy 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
Herbert Beerbohm 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 by Stephen Phillips, Herod
and Ulysses''. He designed the costumes for
Henry James's ill-fated theatrical effort,
Guy Domville;
The Times was not impressed by either the play or the costumes. Among Anderson's other successes were
Trelawny of the "Wells" (1898),
Merrie England (1902),
Véronique (1904), the hit British premiere of
The Merry Widow in 1907,
Fallen Fairies (1909),
Kismet (1911) and
Chu Chin Chow (1916). He designed the costumes for various productions of
Edwardian musical comedies for
George Edwardes, such as the hit musicals
The Geisha (1896),
A Greek Slave (1898) and
San Toy (1899), and
The Duchess of Dantzic (1903). The
Royal Opera House commissioned Anderson to design costumes in 1900. Anderson's designs were also used in a number of
Broadway productions. Anderson had private means, and for a time roomed with
Morton Fullerton. He was part of a circle of rich, artistic homosexual men, who included
Lord Ronald Gower, the courtier Alec Yorke and
Hamilton Aïdé. In the 1910s, Anderson was closely associated with the young novelist
Hugh Walpole.
The Times, in its obituary notice, said that Anderson "escaped from the pedantry of his predecessors and paved the way in the most interesting manner" for a new generation of designers such as
Bakst,
Claud Lovat Fraser and
Edward Gordon Craig. He illustrated the 1907 book,
Costume: Fanciful, Historical and Theatrical. Anderson died in King's College Hospital, London, in 1928, aged 77. ==Notes==