Mary Kessell

Mary Merlin Kessell (13 November 1914 – 1977) was a British figurative painter, illustrator, designer and war artist. Born in London, she studied at the Clapham School of Art, then later at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. At the end of the Second World War, she was commissioned to work in Germany as an official British war artist; one of only three women selected. She spent six weeks in Germany, travelling to the recently liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as well as other major cities including Berlin. She produced charcoal drawings of refugees, primarily of women and children which she subsequently sold to the War Artists Advisory Committee. Throughout her time as a student she illustrated books, one of which was Miss Kimber by Osbert Sitwell in 1937.

War artist

During the end of the Second World War, Kessell was based in Germany having been commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee, WAAC, as an official British war artist.

Kessell's first destination was the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, which had been liberated by Allied forces four months previously. She arrived later than the other war artists, including Doris Zinkeisen, Edgar Ainsworth and Eric Taylor, who had visited the camp immediately after its liberation. By the time Kessell arrived, the remaining camp buildings had been destroyed and former inmates were being transferred to the nearby displaced persons camp. Convoys for the camp survivors to return to their home countries were being organized and Kessell witnessed a number of these departures. This had a distinct effect on the work she produced. At Belsen, Kessell completed seven drawings in black and sanguine charcoal, which she called Notes from Belsen Camp, 1945. She worked as a designer in the Shell Studio at Shell-Mex House and produced posters for Shell (1952) and later, in 1964, for London Transport promoting Kew Gardens. Kessell exhibited some of her refugee drawings at the first of her four solo shows to be held at the Leicester Galleries in 1950.