The Stock Exchange London 1933
Rex Whistler

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The Stock Exchange London 1933
detail detail detail
detail detail detail
Rex Whistler (1905-1944) (after)
The Stock Exchange London 1933
The Financial News, London: November 13, 1933
Photo-process print, green and grey
17.25 x 23 inches, overall
14.5 x 20.5 inches, image
Sold, please inquire as to the availability of similar items.

Whimsical illustration of the London Stock Market, in the style of Dutch 16th- and 17th-century maps. It shows the major world industries of the time, such as oil, rubber, insurance and shipping. The cartouche at lower right is decorated with a bull and bear in tophats and tails. In the upper right flies Mercury, the Roman messenger god, carrying a compass. The upper left shows an allegorical figure of plenty or prosperity -- a woman in classical garb showering the capitalists below with the contents of her cornucopia, while being heralded by a winged cupid with trumpet. Lower left, the key is also set within a cornucopia, this one attended by King Midas and Dame Fortune. The Exchange is shown as bordered by Capel Court, Shorter's Court, Throgmorton Street and Old Broad Street. This print was apparently issued as a premium with the Financial News of London.

Key indicates: 1. Gilt Edged. 2. Shipping Canals & Gas. 3. Home Rails. 4. Yankees. 5. Banks. 6 Insurance. 7. Oils. 8. Industrials. 9. Foreign Bonds. 10. Breweries & Distilleries. 11. Rubbers. 12 Iron, Coal, & Steel. 13. Foreign Rails. 14. Investment Trusts. 15. Electric Light & Power. 16. Teas. 17. West African Mines. 18. Australian, Indian, & Malayan Mines. 19. Miscellaneous Mines. 20. Rhodesians. 21. S. African Mines.

Whistler was one of the great English illustrators of the Edwardian era, as well as being an accomplished painter and designer of furniture, buildings and film and theater sets. As a student at the Slade School of Fine Art, London, he was considered to be one of the best young artists of his generation, and received a major mural commission for the Tate Gallery restaurant soon after graduation. Whistler had a great affinity with the French romantic and classical painters such as Poussin, Claude, Watteau and Boucher, and also studied art history and architecture, but stood apart from the Modernist currents in the avant-garde art of the era. Whistler was a prolific illustrator, and works include a 1931 edition of Gulliver's Travels and OHO, a popular children's book with text by Laurence Whistler featuring reversible faces. As a member of the Bloomsbury Group, he received commissions from the great aristocrats of England, including Sir Edward James, who had him design a fantastic carpet with mermaids and sea creatures. He also painted murals in private houses and portraits of members of London society, including Edith Sitwell and Cecil Beaton. He died at the age of 39 on his first day of action during service in World War II.

The Financial News began covering the London Stock Exchange in 1884. In 1945 it merged with its rival publication, the Financial Times. The combined publication kept the Financial Times name, and remains a respected business newspaper today.

Reference:

"Rex Whistler." The Grove Dictionary of Art. New York: Macmillan. 2000. Artnet.com. http://www.artnet.com/library/09/0913/T091396.asp (1 May 2003).