The restaurant at Tate Britain is famous for two things — its wine list and its mural.
The restaurant at Tate Britain is famous for two things — its wine list and its mural. Hamish Anderson, compiler of the former, began with the advantage of a famous cellar; Rex Whistler, creator of the latter, began with the blank walls of a dingy basement previously referred to as a ‘dungeon’.
Whistler was only 20 and still a student at the Slade when he won the restaurant commission in 1926. His rare gifts of draughtsmanship and imagination had persuaded Henry Tonks he was the man for the job, and the Professor’s faith in his favourite pupil was rewarded. In place of the usual trompe l’oeil panels, Whistler came up with an ambitious, continuous scheme: the travels of a party of epicures ‘In Pursuit of Rare Meats’ through afantasy landscape dotted with architectural capriccios.
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