Howard Coster (1885-1959), photograph of Rex Whistler in his Fitzroy Street studio, c1933-4. On loan from the National Portrait Gallery, London. © Estate of Rex Whistler 2006. All Rights Reserved, DACS

Katie Allen takes in a new retrospective exhibition celebrating the life and works of artist and designer Rex Whistler at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery.

Rex Whistler: The Triumph of Fancy is the first major exhibition on Whistler in almost half a century. On display until September 3 2006, it introduces one of the foremost decorative artists of the early 20th century.

Despite his success, Whistler did not remain a household name after his death, mainly because much of his work has not left the private collections of his friends and patrons for public display since the 1960s.

Seven Gothic Tales, 1934 Watercolour dust jacket design 20.32 × 17.78cm On loan from a private collection © Estate of Rex Whistler 2006. All Rights Reserved, DACS

The chronological arrangement of the rooms into three decades highlights the brevity of Whistler’s life, for he died aged only 39 on his first day of combat in WWII. During his short life, he produced a vast amount of work in different media, from book illustrations to portrait and landscape painting, via theatre and interior design.

The first room traces Whistler’s development as an artist during the 1920s. Born in 1905, he enrolled at the Slade School of Art aged 17, and the gallery has obtained some of his academic sketches, which give a taste of his exceptional talent as a draughtsman.

Aged only 22 he was put forward by Slade Principal Henry Tonks to decorate the Tate Gallery restaurant. Whistler produced the fantastic mural In Pursuit of Rare Meats, and some of the preliminary designs are included in the exhibition.

In the Wilderness, 1939. Private collection. © Estate of Rex Whistler 2006. All Rights Reserved, DACS

Other preparatory and practice works displayed include a sketch of classical busts to which he comically added limbs and heads. It is these human touches that bring Whistler, the man and the artist, to life; particularly a collection of sketchbooks and diaries containing his doodles and drawings, which contrast academic exercises in technique with the fantastic leaps of his imagination.

Whistler’s idiosyncratic style emerged from his passion for 17th and 18th century architecture and art, interpreted via his fanciful imagination. Many of his intricate illustrations for fairy-stories are on show, including those for Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, which veer from the whimsical to the sinister, edged by gothic skulls and classical statuary. He considered these to be his finest work.

Interspersed with his art are fascinating black-and-white photographs that document a privileged life socialising with aristocratic and cosmopolitan friends such as Cecil Beaton and Stephen Tennant. These ‘Bright Young Things’ are captured taking part in plays and in fancy dress, a light-hearted generation desperate to leave behind the horrors of the Great War.

Surreal Landscape, 1942. RW’s response to a challenge to paint in the style of Dali. Regimental Headquarters, The Welsh Guards. © Estate of Rex Whistler 2006. All Rights Reserved, DACS

This aura of frivolity and extravagance continued into the 1930s as Whistler’s reputation and popularity increased. The next room contains more of his fabulous designs for murals and theatre productions, plus the ornately realised designs for the glistening Godmersham Goblet, engraved by his brother Lawrence.

There is also an intriguing pair of intimate paintings of one Lady Caroline Paget, for whom Whistler allegedly harboured an unrequited passion.

However, the room is dominated by the spectacular Neptune Carpet, the centrepiece of the exhibition. Woven at Wilton Royal Carpet Factory for Edward James in 1935, it is a fabulous representation of Neptune frolicking in a turquoise sea with horses and mermaids.

Self Portrait in Uniform, 1940. Painted on the first-floor balcony of 27, York Terrace, Regent’s Park, the portrait celebrates the arrival of RW’s first uniform. Courtesy the Council of the National Army Museum. © Estate of Rex Whistler 2006. All Rights Reserved, DACS

Moving into the final room, it is hard not to be struck by one self-portrait, dated 1940. Whistler sought active service when war was declared, and joined the Welsh Guards as a second lieutenant. He has depicted himself on the day his uniform arrived; still looking debonair, the portrayal is nevertheless given an edge by our knowledge of his early death.

Many of his final works are affected by his time in the military; as he spent many of the war years in training, his sketches often depict the languid, yet ominous, times spent ‘waiting’, such as atmospheric portrayals of soldiers lingering in their tents or officers’ mess.

However the exhibition concludes with the witty and fantastic Allegory: The Prince Regent Awakening the Spirit of Brighton. Like the accompanying cameo medallion of George IV, the painting was done on the wallpaper of a room in 39 Preston Park, Brighton, where Whistler was billeted before being sent to France.

(Above) Allegory: H.R.H, the Prince Regent Awakening the Spirit of Brighton, 1944. Courtesy Royal Pavilion, Libraries & Museums, Brighton

Recalling William Etty’s Sleeping Nymphs and Satyrs, the notoriously profligate Prince is seen naked but for a fluttering sash, leaning over the sleeping ingénue of the city.

It was to be Whistler’s last painting, and it is a poignant culmination of a fascinating exhibition, reflecting his talent, imagination and sense of humour.