1930-60 ELISSA LANDI Airbrush Drawing Painting Portrait Kessel Hollywood Pop Art

26x18. First photo is closest to true color in person. A framed airbrushed Hollywood Portrait painting of Elissa Landi by Herman Van Kessel. Signed in the lower right corner. Van Kessel was born in 1878 Ravenstein, Holland to a long lineage of artists going back to the 17th-century. From an early age he was trained in freehand drawing and oil painting until at 16, his family moved to the United States and settled in Minnesota. Working as a lumberjack, he saved enough money at 20-years old to move to Chicago and study art and air brush technique. In 1920, he moved and settled in Los Angeles, California to open his own studio downtown on 7th street working in conjunction with a photography studio featuring clients such as Loew’s Statem, Graumann’s Chinese, Hollywood Pantages, and RKO Theaters. In the mid to late 1930s, Van Kessel did not agree to join the union and as a result lost many of his employed artists and movie work, forcing him into working alone by 1940. He built his own studio behind his home