Portrait de Philippe Roberts-Jones
(Portrait of Philippe Roberts-Jones)

1974, oil painting on canvas, 81 x 65 cm
Private coll., Brussels
N° inv. 1299

The portrait of Phillipe Roberts-Jones, a poet and art critic who was a long-time friend of the artist and who promoted his work, is a prestigious painting which is part of the 30 commissioned portraits produced by Gaston Bertrand between 1947 and 1987. This work confirms the artist’s statements regarding portraiture: “[…] one’s face never has a single resemblance but rather offers various resemblance options. Indeed, the painter – i.e. the creator- is the only one to choose among these many options, he is the one providing the greatest possibility for invention while maintaining credibility”. This clearly demonstrates that, unlike many people thought, the painter did not completely abandoned the idea of some realism in his work. Otherwise, why would he impose such tiresome portrait sessions on his model and himself? Actually, despite the abstraction process – or maybe thanks to this abstraction- these sessions provided a suggestive resemblance to the portrait.
After achieving such a work and having some historical hindsight, Gaston Bertrand probably felt that he had fulfilled a mission which had been loosely neglected by other artists. This feeling is reflected in this statement: “Some of the greatest artists have used portraiture as a message. It would be impossible to eliminate the portraits from their production as their work would then loose its strength and as they would probably not have the same leading role in the history of painting. This is for example the case for the Primitives – Greco, Rubens, Rembrandt, Goya, etc. On the other hand, it seems impossible for an organized society with a long tradition and culture – like our society – not to produce portraits, which are a necessity for any kind of civilization”.