This small oil painting of Two ladies taking tea in the Vicarage garden, Bierton captures an early summer’s day in 1940 and is by the acclaimed artist, Rex Whistler (1905-1944).
Rex was a versatile and accomplished artist, famous for his large murals, theatrical drawings and society portraits. Did you know that his family home was at Bolebec House in Whitchurch, Bucks?
Soon after the outbreak of World War II, his parents went to live with his aunt and uncle in the Vicarage at Bierton. Rex joined the Welsh Guards and would visit Bierton when he was on leave from training. This painting was made at his mother’s request as a memento of this time. It glows with the poetry of an English summer and is inscribed ‘For Mother from Rex’. The painting stayed within the family for over 60 years before being donated to the museum.
It is a very poignant memory of early summer as Rex Whistler was killed in action in Normandy in July 1944. He was only 39.
