The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to bring a British mural painting that originated in England in the 1920’s into the limelight and introduce it to the Swedish public. The mural was commissioned by Tate Gallery, currently known as Tate Britain. The work of art was designed for a semi-public space as a decoration in the Refreshment Room of the gallery, located in the basement where there was little natural light. The artist, a young British man named Rex Whistler, was transformed from being a student at an art school into a celebrated professional artist by this piece of art. With the help of Panofsky’s iconological three-step method and by interpretation in a culture-historical and imperial perspective, I will examine how the mural corresponded with the mural tradition taught at the Slade School of Fine Art.