Bachardy, Don

One Hundred Drawings

Los Angeles, CA: Twelvetrees Press, 1983. Limited First Edition. Softcover. Presentation copy inscribed, signed & dated by Ron Bachardy & Christopher Isherwood to Robert Lewis (depicted in Plate No. 100). A volume of one hundred drawings by Don Bachardy (b. 1934), the acclaimed & venerable American portrait artist who was the life partner of Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986), the canonical British-American author. Arranged chronologically from 1961 through 1982, these drawings are of "...men and women who were distinguished for their work in the arts, chiefly in literature, theatre, cinema and music. These drawings quickly matured in style as Bachardy's interest in his sitters became increasingly psychological." (from Introduction by Nicholas Wilder, unpaginated). Indeed, while the portrait drawings of iconic celebrities from E. M Forster through Robert Lewis are all outstandingly skilled from beginning to end, they increase in rich depth & revelationary luminosity from year to year. Including portraits of Fred Astaire, W.H. Auden, Paul Bowles, Truman Capote, Montgomery Clift, Joan Didion, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, John Huston, Stephen Spender, Tennessee Williams & scores of other Great Figures of twentieth-century arts; & an introduction by Nicholas Wilder (1937-1989), the noted American art dealer & artist. Large-format softcover original in sewn binding, one of 1500 (un-numbered) copies per colophon. On the title page is this inscription with signatures & date in bold black ink: "For Bobby on his 75th birthday,/ with our love,/ (signed) Christopher and Don/ 16 March 1984." "Bobby" is certainly Robert Lewis (1909-1997), the great American actor/director/educator who founded the legendary Actors Studio in NYC & is the subject of the final drawing No. 100 in this volume. Lewis was born on March 16, 1909. As the saying goes, do the math per above-quoted date of inscription. Whether Bachardy or Isherwood penned this presentation inscription,date & "Don" cannot be determined with absolute certainty by us, but in our comparing it with facsimile hand-writings in the drawings we conclude that most likely it is from Bachardy's hand on behalf of himself & Isherwood. The signed name of "Christopher" appears to us to have been penned by Isherwood, as we compared it with a specimen of his signature. From the collection of Laurence Goldstein (1943-2023), a renowned American author, film critic, poet, editor & academician here at the University of Michigan. A top-tier art-literary-historical collectible in its rarest-&-only contemporary form, singularly enriched with its presentment to its famous final subject by the artist & Isherwood, & with distinguished provenance to boot. In relatively good-to-near-fine condition with mild-to-moderate rubbing, faint scratching & occasional spotting, spot-staining to front, back covers & spine; mostly light wear & some tiny bumps, creases at/from edges & corners of same; one small, jagged closed tear at blank area from left edge of back cover near lower corner with minimal loss of paper, surface paper; another much shorter horizontal closed tear from middle of same edge; mild rubbing, a touch of browning to edges of text block. Interior fine-to-very-fine with a hint of browning to blank inner covers & page leaves (the latter chiefly at blank margins/edges); very short tear-chips from outer edges of last four leaves, all at blank areas & with only miniscule loss of paper, surface paper; tiny bumps, faint creases at mostly upper corners of final seventeen-or-so leaves. Good-Near Fine. [Item #6885]

Price: $200.00