Rex Whistler (1905–1944). British artist, illustrator, interior decorator, ceramic designer, muralist and theatre designer

Born in 1905, Rex Whistler trained at London’s Slade School of Fine Art and painted a number of Society portraits during the 1920s and 1930s, including those of Edith Sitwell and Cecil Beaton. He created murals for the Tate Gallery’s restaurant and the Dining Room for the Marquess of Anglesey at Plas Newydd, Anglesey. Whistler designed a number of sets and costumes for ballet, most notably Ninette de Valois’ The Rake’s Progress (based on William’s Hogarth’s series of paintings of the same name), Frederick Ashton’s The Wise Virgins, and Mikhail Fokine’s Les Sylphides and Le Spectre de la rose, all for the Sadler’s Wells Ballet. He died in action at Caen, 1944, during the Second World War.