Rococo Arcadia

Murals are astonishingly common between the wars. In Britain they were less often created for private houses, because most people rented and moved frequently, but they were frequently commissioned for public spaces of all kinds. Like tapestries, murals were a form of decoration that modernist architects approved, because they were subordinate, without painting’s power to challenge. Decorators were also resistant to paintings. While many artists created murals, it is the work of Rex Whistler above all which encapsulates—in its fictiveness, whimsy, melancholy and effortless technical skill—much of what is distinctive about modern baroque.