Rex Whistler: exhibition shines new light on relationship with last patron

Artist was said to have been unlucky with last employer Maud Russell but display at Mottisfont Abbey paints a different picture Many of his friends thought the artist Rex Whistler unlucky in what proved the last of his glamorous society patrons: Maud Russell was young, gorgeous, rich, had a huge country house, Mottisfont Abbey, and a vast room which she wanted him to cover with a mural – but she also knew her own mind. Whistler’s brother Laurence, a glass engraver, said snidely that