© National Portrait Gallery 2020
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Phone +61 2 6102 7000
Fax +61 2 6102 7001
ABN: 54 74 277 1196
Berndt ‘Bernie’ Leser (1925-2015), publisher, was the son of a German Jewish knitwear manufacturer. Raised in Sondershausen, in 1939 he fled Germany with family, ending up in New Zealand, where he left school at 15. Studying business at night school, he gained work as a shoe and clothing salesman. At 22 he moved to Australia, marrying the concert pianist Barbara Davis; in the 1950s he travelled internationally as a product marketer. While working in London, he was approached about starting an Australian edition of the Condé Nast magazine, Vogue. Australian Vogue launched in 1959; a local Vogue Living was introduced in 1967. Leser’s antipodean success was such that by 1976 he was made the company’s managing director in Britain, where he introduced The World of Interiors and Tatler (with the legendary Tina Brown as editor). In 1979 he introduced German Vogue. Seven years later he was made president of Condé Nast in the USA, introducing Condé Nast Traveler and Allure. Remembered for his genial, personal and considerate approach to business – it seemed, said one chairman and chief executive of Condé Nast International, that he ‘knew everyone and they knew him and they loved him’ - from 1994 he lived in retirement in his beloved Sydney.
Judy Cassab kept diaries from the age of twelve. She recalled ‘When I turned 70, my friends Bernie and Barbara Leser invited us for dinner. Bernie asked: “Judy, when are you going to do something about your diaries?” “When I am old,” I answered aggressively. A few minutes later I realised - I am old! Bernie started the ball rolling.’
Courtesy of Mrs Barbara Leser
Accession number: LOAN2019.4
Copyright image request form
Request a digital copy of an image for publication
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves: who we read, who we watch, who we listen to, who we cheer for, who we aspire to be, and who we'll never forget. The Companion is available to buy online and in the Portrait Gallery Store.
Aimee Board traces Judy Cassab’s path to the Australian outback, arriving at the junction of inspiration and abstraction.
The oil portrait of Sir Frank Packer KBE by Judy Cassab was gifted to the National Portrait Gallery in 2006.
The artist's diary profiles six decades of Cassab's work, from the early portrait commissions of the 1950s to later paintings that have helped confirm her eminent place in the canon of Australian portraiture.