Autoportrait à la porte ouverte (II)
(Self-portrait with open door II)

1946, oil painting on canvas, 100 x 77 cm
Coll. Gaston Bertrand Foundation
N ° inv. 172

Bertrand surprisingly innovated with this hieratic self-portrait. The impression of motion is provided to the background through a network of oblique lines. These lines echo the doorframe and the mouldings of the door appearing on the side: this is one of the first signs of the artist’s interest for architecture and for purely geometric shapes. The straight-lines of the background are balanced with the curves of the figure, which is particularly true given the pale ovoid face, the neckline contour and the movement in the shoulders. However, thanks to the brushed colours and to the use of common materials, the bust eventually merges into the background. The gradual erasing of the figure’s body clearly demonstrates that Bertrand was not, and even less than before, searching for resemblance and rather favoured the abstract construction of the painting as well as the formal dialogue between the figure and the background.