Great portraitists

I found great pleasure in reading about the relationship between the portrait painters Lucien Freud and David Hockney (“The Portraitists,” Jan. 12). However, I found a great bit of difficulty regarding art critic Robert Hughes’ words that Freud is the world’s greatest living realist painter. Please, let us not forget one of our very own from California: Don Bachardy.

Bachardy has the rare ability to gaze into a sitter’s eyes and, within a two-hour period, extract all of their secrets, hold it in the air for a moment, then throw it down on canvas. It’s like a Zen master becoming one with his sitter. Bachardy not only captures a likeness, but also the essence of the sitter. In regards to the world’s greatest living portrait painter, my money is with Don Bachardy.

Skeith DeWine

Santa Ana