Portrait de Betty
(Portrait of Betty)

1941, oil painting on canvas, 54 x 45 cm
Coll. Gaston Bertrand Foundation
N° inv. 83

Gaston Bertrand bound his fate with Betty, the woman that he had met at the end of the 1930s when she lived in Jolly Street (Schaerbeek), in front of Bertrand’s house. They got more acquainted with each other when they met at the Rossignol in 1938, a place in the Bois de la Cambre where they sometimes went to dance.
Although Betty posed several times for the purpose of some researches on human figure, Bertrand made only one oil painting portrait of his wife. This work, painted in 1941, reflects the young lady’s natural beauty, her sense of elegance and her benevolence.