Today's Molti Ritratti is another switcheroo in that rather than featuring formal commissioned oil portraits, the images below are cover illustrations for movie fan magazines.
Nowadays fan magazines use photography for cover art. But into the 1930s their covers normally featured illustrations, and those illustration were often done in pastels rather than oil paint, watercolor, gouache and other commonly used illustration media.
Hollywood cranked out a lot of pictures each year, therefore keeping the stars very busy. So I don't know if cover illustrators were able to view their subjects in person or else relied mostly on photos furnished by the studio publicity staffs. I suspect the latter.
In any case, for your viewing enjoyment, below are covers featuring Miss Swanson.
Swanson was about 30 year old when this was taken, and it strikes me as a suitable image for comparison with the magazine covers below.
By Hal Phyfe.
The cover artist is Marland Stone.
By Charles Sheldon.
The artist's signature reads as John Clarke, best I can tell.
I cannot see an artist signature.
Another cover by Marland Stone.
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