Fine. Given by Don Bachardy to Craig Dodd, an in-house designer for Methuen who created the jacket for A Meeting by the River (although not credited).
A striking and important early portrait of Christopher Isherwood by his partner Don Bachardy, c. 1967, used on the rear panel of the dustjacket for Isherwood’s novel A Meeting by the River.
Bachardy first met Isherwood in 1952 and by all accounts their connection was immediate, quickly becoming a couple. Isherwood remembered feeling ‘awed by the emotional intensity of our relationship, right from its beginning; the strange sense of a fated, mutual discovery’ (Isherwood, My Guru and His Disciple). Barchardy described Isherwood taking an interest in his casual sketches of Hollywood stars, drawn from photographs in magazines. Thinking that a live model would suit the artist better, Isherwood offered to sit for him.
For Barchardy, this was a revelation; ‘It was such a discovery for me!… It was so much more interesting - a real face with all the lines!… After that I couldn’t work from a photograph ever again… The experience of looking closely at a living face, a real face - I got drunk on it!’. ‘He made it possible for me to become an artist. I would never have had the confidence in myself without him’.
For Isherwood, Bachardy’s honest depiction of the creases and lines of age on his face came as something of an unwelcome surprise: ‘I remember when I was finished, Chris stood up and came to see what I’d done. There was a very silent pause before Chris said, ‘You know I think it’s very good; it’s very like me.’ But the pause was one of shock.’ This is Bachardy’s way, working always from life and capturing the essence of the sitter with faithful attention to detail which others, seeking to pander to celebrity egos, may have avoided.
Isherwood and Bachardy purchased a home together in Santa Monica, overlooking the beach where they first met. It was here that Bachardy embarked on a remarkable career, drawing authors such as W.H. Auden and Hollywood stars, something he still finds difficult to believe; ‘If you’d told me that one day I’d have people like Bette Davis sitting for me!’ (Bachardy). David Hockney became a good friend to the couple after moving to Los Angeles in 1964 and they became a regular feature in his art of the period, his drawings and paintings forming a beautiful and intimate portrait of the two men in love.
Bachardy continued drawing Isherwood throughout their life together, and the present sketch is likely to date from the early-middle 1960’s, although it is undated and unsigned, but cannot be later than 1967, the publication date of Meeting by the River.
