The Tate Gallery poster – Rex Whistler – 1928
This is a reproduction of a vintage Underground railway poster. The original poster was published by the Underground Electric Railways Company and dates back to 1928. The company commissioned the artist Rex Whistler to create a poster to encourage underground rail travel to the Art Gallery. Whistler had completed a mural, ‘Epicurania’ for the Tate Gallery restaurant earlier that year. For this Underground poster, Whistler took elements from the mural and wove them into a new composition. The poster features two women taking tea added to the foreground so as to appear as though they are drinking at the Tate’s Restaurant.
The original painting for the poster is part of the a collection held at Plas Newydd, Anglesey. An online article on the National Trust Collections website, written by Gabriella de la Rosa in 2020 provides more information on this now controversial painting.
“Figures from the landscape attempt to call the attention to the women, who remain oblivious to their efforts. These include a drummer descending the steps of an arched monument, a winged cherub on a bicycle, a cherub blowing a horn and a hunting party in a horse-drawn carriage. A self-referential note pinned to the side of the carriage bears the title of the restaurant mural: ‘The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats’. [2] In the top-left corner of the poster, a simianised figure in the branches of a tree overlooks the scene below. This instance of racist caricature is amplified in the full visual narrative of Whistler’s mural, which includes episodic depictions of a black child being pursued, enslaved and chained behind a horse and carriage. Historically, the imagery in ‘The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats’ has been described as ‘whimsical and entertaining pastiche’ [3] with the restaurant dubbed ‘The Most Amusing Room in Europe’. [4] This latter description first appeared in 1927 and was adopted by the Tate for many years in interpretation of the mural, but was removed in August 2020. [5] Until 2020, acknowledgement of the racist caricature had not been formally noted in the catalogue description of this poster. (Gabriella de la Rosa, 2020).”
Another online article on the Cary Collection website provides more details about Whistler’s “The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats” mural. It describes the mural’s design. “The action depicted in the mural takes place in the fictive land of “Epicurania” ruled over by the “Duke of Epicurania”. The content of the mural was created in a collaboration between Whistler and the novelist Edith Olivier. The story articulated in the work depicts an account wherein an “expedition” of a group of seven people departs in search of exotic meats. They travel on all manner of transport—bicycles, carts and horses—from their point of departure the “Duchy of Epicurania”, and venture through bizarre and enchanting lands while coming upon creatures such as unicorns, truffle dogs and two giant gluttons guarding the entrance to a cave. The tale finishes with the adventurers arriving back to an ebullient welcome, and the menu of the Epicuranians, which had previously consisted of dry biscuits, is forever changed.” Several notable British buildings are depicted in the mural including the bridge at Wilton Park and an arch and pavilion in the grounds of Stowe House. Henry Tonks is portrayed in a bust that looks out from a grotto in the mural.”
Our posters are carefully and professionally created from vintage originals. Whilst great care is taken in the production of these posters, we also try to maintain a vintage feel, so there may be small imperfections, fold marks, scuffs, tears or marks that were part of the original poster master. If these do appear they should be visible on the larger views of the item on this listing. The originals of many of the posters we offer can cost many thousands of pounds, so whilst these posters look great, especially framed and mounted on a wall, they are intended as a fun, affordable reproductions and not intended fine art prints.
The 50x70cm version has been specially produced to be used in conjunction with Ikea’s 50x70cm Ribba picture frame which currently retails for around £12. So you can bag a bargain of print and frame for a great price.
