Watermark: fragment.
Whistler studied in London at the Royal Academy of Arts Schools and the Slade School of Fine Art. He built a successful career as a muralist and book illustrator, painting murals in private houses-among them, that of Sir Philip Sassoon at Porte Lympne, Kent-and creating hand-colored pen drawings for such projects as Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" (London, 1931). He also executed portraits of members of London society, including Edith Sitwell and Cecil Beaton. He died on his first day of action during service in World War II. Our new drawing is a study for a projected design, apparently never realized, for a mural representing an underwater cave or grotto. In this Romantic image, executed in the artist's characteristic delicate watercolor washes applied in a miniaturist technique, a mermaid reclines on a rocky shore at the grotto's edge, while behind her lies a ruined ship at anchor and a medieval castle on the far shore. Whistler executed this study the year he visited Italy, where he was enthralled with the grottoes of Neptune and the Sirens at Tivoli.
Signed and dated below bottom edge of design at right in pen and black ink, "Rex Whistler. 1929."; inscribed by the artist below design in pen and brown ink, "Edge of door to be moulded in plaster. / Everything else painted. / Floor of room. / Design for a 'Cave' room". On verso, according to previous literature, but not visible because of lining, "For Mary with love and best wishes fro[m] Rex. 19 July 1935".