Final Usable Version of Mural

Plas Newydd: for years it has been an unreachable idyll, the place which Rex Whistler loved, where he painted his most famous mural and where, now, some of his early work and his letters and several paintings are on display. And on Saturday we finally got there. Only to find it has been – National Trustified. There is nothing to say without sounding appallingly elitist, so best not to say anything. But look at this page and grieve. Worse, there was a guide sounding off for the entire half an hour that we hovered round the mural longing to look at it in peace and quiet. So: do go there, for the house and its setting by the water is extraordinary and Whistler was an undoubted genius . But if you are the kind of person who can't stand the Duncan and Vanessa chat at Charleston, then you will feel the same about the way Rex Whistler is treated at Plas Newydd. Here, in any event, is the mural, in a photograph taken from The Laughter and the Urn, the superb 1985 biography of his brother by Laurence Whistler (and luckily it is minus the large red leather chairs that are inflicted on the table nowadays).