Don Bachardy interviewed at LACMA

Eighty-year-old American portrait artist Don Bachardy was interviewed and signed his newest book of portraits at Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Sunday, the 28th.  Bachardy was the life partner of writer Christopher Isherwood who he met on Santa Monica Beach when Bachardy was 18 and Isherwood was 48.  They remained together until Isherwood's death in 1986.  Bachardy still lives in the Santa Monica beach house that they shared.

Bachardy was the portrait artist to the Hollywood stars.  One of his most viewed paintings is that of Governor Jerry Brown that was painted after the completion is Brown's first years as governor in 1978.  It hangs along with all the other California governor portraits in the state Capitol.  A photo of it is below.

Bachardy grew up in the Atwater district of L.A.  He met the Hollywood elite through his partner who was from England.  He said he developed an English accent after about a year living together.
Bachardy's works reside in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the de Young museum in San Francisco, the Huntington Library and art Gallery, UCLA, Smithsonian, and the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Bachardy was interviewed by the woman whose nude painting is below.  She was clothed.  He talked about his experience painting Shelly Winters (in a smock and eating blue berry pie), Robert Maplethorp (with an accidental drop of ink on the chin of his portrait that Robert liked because he looked like a vampire), Charles Laughton in the hospital (he kept moving around), Jimmy Stewart's daughters (he kicks himself for not asking Jimmy to do his portrait), and Marlene Dietrich.  She came to his beach house for her portrait driven by Bachardy in Chris' VW Bug.  She wore a white suit.

More recently he was asked to do a portrait of Angelina Jolie, nude, during each of the trimesters of her pregnancy.  This was arranged by her mother Marcheline Bertrand.  Her father is Jon Voight. He did the first portrait in L.A.  For the second trimester he was flown to Paris to complete it.  The thrid was done in Namibia.  Brad Pitt joined the session, took off his clothes and Bachardy sketched both of them.

Below are a few of his works and a picture of him during the book signing:

The interviewer's portrait

Bachardy signing his book for a customer.

Recent photo

Self portrait

Portrait of Governor Jerry Brown after his first 8 years as California's chief in the 1979's