Portrait de Georges Everaert
(Portrait of Georges Everaert)

1978, oil painting on canvas, 81 x 65 cm
Private coll., Brussels
N° inv. 1412

With this portrait of his friend – who then became President of the Gaston Bertrand Foundation from 1994 to 2000 – Gaston Bertrand created a remarkable effigy and treated some details in a surprising way. The artist was able to isolate and underline some revealing details during the portrait sessions and those details remained visible through the abstraction process.

Gaston Bertrand clearly found the way which allowed him to create an impressive gallery of portraits which would remain as masterpieces in this particular category of modern art history. His approach implied a qualified and relative understanding of resemblance. Just like Picasso or Bacon, Bertrand created some uncertainty regarding the idea of identity. Indeed, identity is not regarded as a static notion but rather as a concept prone to miscellaneous interpretations. A concept that constantly dissolves and decomposes according to the gaze and feelings.