Artist In Residence: David Downton
First he fell into fashion, now he’s a fixture at Claridge’s. Premier portrait artist David Downton talks luck, likenesses, and lasting impressions…
If you step inside Claridge’s Art Deco Fumoir, over at table 4 you’ll likely see Artist in Residence David Downton sketching away as a famous face sits for him. Downton’s instantly recognizable portraits of Kate Moss and Carolina Herrera have graced the pages of Vogue and Vanity Fair, and he’s captured the essence of the world’s most stylish women, from Diane von Furstenberg to Catherine Deneuve. “Everyone comes to see me at Claridge’s,” he says with the joy of a man who’s landed the best job in the world. Downton spoke with Luxury Defined in a rare moment of downtime.
What was your childhood ambition?
To draw for a living. I’ve always been good at art. I didn’t have options – I was told I was “good at art.” So, I believed I was good at art and I got the art prize every year. My brother was “good at sport” and he played cricket for England. I wasn’t bad at sport but I was considered good at art and I knew no better. It was only when I got to art school that I realised I wasn’t actually a genius, and that everyone could make art. But I didn’t have any other skills. I wanted and needed to pursue art.
Your work is instantly recognizable – how did your style develop?
The worst thing you can do is think about style. What I do is a shorthand, my response – gradually you work out what your response is. I always say to students that people, including me, want to be known, want to be recognized, but your style is something that will find you. You’ll trip over it in the night. If you start pursuing a particular style, you start being forced. My style is just how things have evolved.
Where do you live, and where do you work?
I live about 10 miles outside of Brighton, on the southeast coast of England, and I have a studio just outside the main house. It’s great but if, say, I run out of red gouache, it’s a half-day round trip to get some more. I found that having a proper studio in Brighton means I can come and work more easily. Brighton is just a much easier place to navigate than London. I went from my home in Kent to London when I first started work, but then started visiting Brighton, where, interestingly, there are more illustrators per capita than anywhere in the country. Though, of course, these days most of my work is in London. So for me my Brighton studio is the point between my home and London, it’s where I work and where no one bothers me.
You are Artist in Residence at Claridge’s Hotel in central London. Tell us about this role.
I do approximately one day and night a week at Claridge’s – though I don’t know who’s counting. During Fashion Week I might do four nights and then not be there for two weeks. Like everything great, it happened through chance. Paula Fitzherbert [the hotel’s PR] saw me drawing the model Jade Parfitt on Vogue TV and called me – we’d met before – and said, “Wouldn’t it be great to do something like that here!” I said, “Yes!” But we couldn’t work out what that “something” was. We sat down with Thomas Kochs, Claridge’s general manager, and some other people, and someone said, “Artist in Residence.” As soon as there was a title there was a “something.” It’s been wonderful for both of us. I’ve done interviews around the world and of course I mention Claridge’s. Artist in Residence is a magic title, who wouldn’t want it? And to be that at Claridge’s – to be anything in residence at Claridge’s – it’s extraordinary!
Growing up, what were your ambitions?
I never expected to be in fashion or to be doing what I am doing. I was interested in fashion but I’d never seen a fashion show or even thought to. In the 1980s when I was starting out as a jobbing illustrator fashion just wasn’t front-page news like it is now. I didn’t feel I was an artist. When I began working, fine art and illustration could never be the same thing. They were two separate worlds and you never crossed over. I became “David Downton, The Artist” when I realized I was going to have to step into the world of fashion. I was 37 before I even saw a fashion show. Fashion came to me at the right time. I went to couture for my first fashion illustration job and I was so excited. I knew what couture was, who Valentino was, but it wasn’t my world. Today, of course, people really want to “be” fashion illustrators so badly but for me it just happened.
Do you have any unfulfilled ambitions?
I wanted more than anything to draw the cast of Mad Men and I asked so many people, but I just couldn’t make it work. I was obsessed with the series. I’ve drawn January Jones [who plays Betty Draper], who was amazing, and who turned up to The Sunset Tower Hotel in L.A. totally “done” – immaculately dressed, immaculate hair and make-up. And she was also really smart. But I never got to do the full cast.
How do you capture the essence of your sitters?
I keep working until it looks like I’ve done no work. I’m not trying to do an internal portrait of the person – I don’t get to see them or meet them for long enough. I deal with the surface. I do, however, have to be in the room with them to properly get the image.
How does Artist in Residence at Claridge’s work?
The drawings I do at Claridge’s take an extremely high level of negotiation. They are all people from the worlds of style and fashion, but everyone I draw there has a connection to the hotel – they all have a story. Diane von Furstenberg, for example, designed suites. Alber Elbaz [creative director of Lanvin] did a Christmas tree. Joan Collins got married there. There has to be a connection, otherwise it would be like a New York deli, where you take a ticket and wait your turn. I don’t draw every time I am there, though.
Who are your favorite sitters?
Erin O’Connor and Carmen [Dell’Orefice]. I first saw Erin on a catwalk – for Gaultier couture – in 1998 and I was blown away. She is in life everything I try to do on paper. I didn’t know who she was or anything about her, but I know I sat differently after seeing her. She looks like a drawing – you can’t draw her badly. She is incapable of an inelegant gesture. If she were here flopped on the sofa, you’d want to pick up a pencil and draw her. She just has that “thing.” And Carmen is just extraordinary – she’s someone you learn from. She’s 84 and she just teaches you how to be, how to react, how to… live. Plus she is the most beautiful person in any room that she is in, which is against every natural law. Every other person in the room is looking at her, no matter who else is there.
You don’t draw many men…
I draw more men than you think. You don’t see a lot but you will. Oddly, I find it easier to draw men than women, maybe because I’m not used to it.
Who would you still like to draw?
Julianne Moore, Tilda Swinton, Anjelica Huston, Grace Jones…
Do people ever turn down the chance to be drawn by you?
They have, and it’s to do with all kinds of things. It could just be time. Maybe they just don’t want to do it. People think they have to spend hours with me but that’s not always the case. Obviously the longer I can have with someone the better. Some people give over an entire day because they love the process, but some people have an hour and you’d better be ready. I had about 20 minutes with Alber Elbaz because he was due downstairs [at Claridge’s] at a party he was hosting and people were coming in to say how much they liked his Christmas tree.
You’ve drawn lots of famous faces…
I stumbled into fashion by accident, as I said. When I was preparing for my first exhibition in 1998 someone said, “Oh you must invite [fashion designer] Bruce Oldfield,” who was a friend of theirs, so I did and he rang me and said, “I love your invitation (which was a drawing), would you do some work for me?” I said I would if he would come to the show and I then said, “And I’ll do it on time if you bring [model] Marie Helvin.” And he did. So at the exhibition I asked Marie if I could draw her, and she agreed, and that changed everything. She was brilliant. Once I’d drawn her she contacted all her friends and told them about me, so then all these people, Paloma Picasso, Catherine Deneuve, were willing to be drawn.
What I love about drawing people is that before I do it, I have this build-up, where I’m thinking, for example, “Oh my god, I’m going to draw Catherine Deneuve,” and then while I’m drawing her, she could be anyone, and then when I finish, I once again think, “Oh my god, I’ve just met Catherine Deneuve.”
If I was a photographer all these famous people would think they know as much as me, because they’re so used to being photographed. They know where everything is, and what everything does. They know how they’ll look, and how they like to be shot, but with me they have to trust that I know what I’m doing and that I know more than they do. I never let my sitters see what I’m doing while I’m working. Sometimes I have really extraordinary people sitting in front of me, but I have to think, “This doesn’t work until I’m sure.”
Let’s talk about travel. Which are your favorite cities?
I love New York and Paris but they are both about work. I love Venice, which I’ve been visting a bit more recently – it’s a magical place. I also love San Francisco, where I know the most extraordinary people. I went there to become a doctor of the university – I have three honorary doctorates, by the way – and I just seemed to land in the middle of a really crazy crowd of people who make visiting the city really fun for me.
What do you never travel without?
My sketchbook. I always travel with a sketchbook but I don’t always use it. I have to know it’s there, but quite often I tune out from drawing and do none at all. But if I don’t have a sketchbook with me, I feel strange.
What do you do to relax?
I’m brilliant at doing nothing. I’ve just spent a week visiting a tiny island off Corsica. Whenever I go on holiday people assume I’m there sitting on a rock doing watercolors and I never am. I’m sure if I was away for three months I would probably do some painting. But if I’m away for a week, I can just let things drift and let life happen. Life can be quite pressured now, lots of travel, lots of things going on, the book coming out [David Downton: Portraits of the World’s Most Stylish Women], talking to people. So I have to keep on renewing and regenerating.
How engaged in social media are you?
Very unengaged except with Instagram, which takes up about 40 minutes of my day. As any illustrator or artist will tell you, Instagram is a phenomenon, and is in part responsible for the extraordinary renewed interest in fashion
David Downton: Portraits of the World’s Most Stylish Women (Laurence King, £40), is out now
