HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Donald Jess Bachardy (born May 18, 1934) is an American
portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...
artist. He resides in
Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
. Bachardy was the partner of Christopher Isherwood for more than 30 years.


Early life

Born in Los Angeles, California, Bachardy studied at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles and the Slade School of Art in London. His first one-man exhibition was held in October 1961 at the Redfern Gallery in London. He met the writer Christopher Isherwood on
Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a Christian martyrs, martyr named Saint Valentine, Valentine, and ...
1953, when he was 18 and Isherwood was 48. They remained together until Isherwood's death in 1986. A number of paperback editions of Isherwood's novels feature Bachardy's pencil portraits of the author. A film about their relationship, titled '' Chris & Don: A Love Story'', was released in 2008.


Work

Bachardy has had many one-man exhibitions in Los Angeles, San Francisco,
Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
,
Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
and New York City. More recently, he exhibited at the Huntington Library in
San Marino, California San Marino is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It was incorporated on April 25, 1913. At the 2020 United States census the population was 12,513, a decline from the 2010 United States census. History Origin of name Th ...
, in 2004–2005. His works reside in the permanent collections of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
in New York, the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum of Art in San Francisco, the
University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...
, Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California, the
University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...
, the Fogg Art Museum of
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
,
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
, the
Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...
, and the National Portrait Gallery, London. Six books of his work have been published. His life and works are also documented in Terry Sanders' film ''The Eyes of Don Bachardy''. He collaborated with Isherwood on ''Frankenstein: The True Story'' (1973). His book ''Stars in My Eyes'' (2000), about celebrated people whom he had painted, became a number one best-seller in Los Angeles. Bachardy's most haunting and eloquent published collection, "Last Drawings of Christopher Isherwood" in 1990 contains the dying and deceased Isherwood for the last time in his eyes. One of Bachardy's most notable works is the official gubernatorial portrait of Jerry Brown that hangs in the
California State Capitol Museum The California State Capitol Museum consists of a museum in and grounds around the California State Capitol in Sacramento, California, United States. The building has been the home of the California State Legislature since 1869. The State Ca ...
. Most recently, Bachardy made a cameo appearance in the movie ''A Single Man'' (starring Colin Firth) based on Isherwood's book of the same name—he portrays a professor in the teacher's lounge, to whom Firth says "Hello. Don." Bachardy told ''Angeleno Magazine'' in their December 2009 issue: "Chris got the idea for that book when he and I were having a domestic crisis. We'd been together 10 years. I was making a lot of trouble and wondering if I shouldn't be on my own. Chris was going through a very difficult period (as well). So he killed off my character, Jim, in the book and imagined what his life would be like without me."


Personal life

Bachardy still lives in his and Isherwood's Santa Monica home (his place of residence for over 50 years), where he paints portraits for gallery shows and on a commission basis. In January 2010, he showed a retrospective of self-portraits (from 1959–2009) at Craig Krull Gallery in Santa Monica. In the fall of 2011, Bachardy exhibited portraits made over the last 40 years depicting artists from Southern California, including Peter Alexander, Larry Bell, Billy Al Bengston, Robert Irwin, Ed Moses, and Ed Ruscha at Craig Krull Gallery in conjunction with the Getty initiative Pacific Standard Time. All 33 paintings were purchased by a New York collector on the board of the Whitney Museum.


Works

*''Frankenstein: The True Story''. 1973 (with Christopher Isherwood) *''Don Bachardy: Drawings''. Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Park 1973 *''October / O.'' Methuen, London 1983 (with Christopher Isherwood), *''One Hundred Drawings''. Twelvetrees Press, Los Angeles 1983 *''70 × 1 Drawings''. Illuminati, 1983 *''Drawings of the male nude'' (including Rick Sandford). Twelvetrees Press, Pasadena 1985, *''Christopher Isherwood: Last drawings''. Faber and Faber, London/Boston 1990, (mit John Russell, Stephen Spender) *''Short cuts: the screenplay''. Capra Press, Santa Barbara 1993 (with Robert Altmann, Frank Barhydt), *''Observant Eye: Portrait Drawings By Don Bachardy''. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1996 *''The Portrait''. Imprenta Glorias, Los Angeles 1997 (with Gloria Stuart) *''Stars In My Eyes''. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 2000, *''The Animals: Love Letters Between Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy'', edited by Katherine Bucknell. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 2014. *''Hollywood''. Glitterati 2014, *''Don Bachardy: Nudes''. Craig Krull Gallery 2017,


Filmography

* '' Frankenstein: The True Story'' (TV Movie 1972 teleplay – writer, with Isherwood) * '' The Rose Tattoo'' (1955 – Passenger in Back Seat of Car) * '' Rich and Famous'' (1981 – Malibu Party Guest) * ''Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert Altman in Carver Country'' (1993 documentary – himself) * ''Chris & Don: A Love Story'' (2007 documentary – himself) * ''Finding Lee Mullican'' (2008 documentary – himself) * '' Huxley on Huxley'' (2009 documentary – himself) * ''
A Single Man ''A Single Man'' is a 2009 American historical drama film, period romantic drama film based on A Single Man (novel), the 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood. The List of directorial debuts, directorial debut of fashion designer Tom Ford, the fi ...
'' (2009 film – professor) * '' Christopher and His Kind'' (2011 TV movie – consultant) * ''Hockney'' (2014 documentary – himself) * ''Truman Capote: Enfant Terrible Der Amerikanischen Literatur'' (2016 TV Movie documentary – himself)


See also

* Peter Parker, ''Isherwood: A Life'' (2004). * Daniel Curzon, ''Remembering Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy''. In: ''Harrington Gay Men's Fiction Quarterly'', Volume 6 (2004), Issue 1. * Lee Prosser, ''Isherwood, Bowles, Vedanta, Wicca, and Me'', (2001), .


References


External links


The Eyes of Don Bachardy
(American Film Foundation)






Oral history interview with Don Bachardy, 2009 May 21 – Oct 7
from the Smithsonian
Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washing ...
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bachardy, Don 1934 births Living people Gay painters American gay artists LGBTQ people from California American portrait painters Painters from Los Angeles Chouinard Art Institute alumni American LGBTQ painters Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Artists from Santa Monica, California 21st-century American LGBTQ people 20th-century American LGBTQ people