Nus sur la plage
(Nudes on the beach)

1944, oil painting on canvas, 65 x 81 cm
Coll. Gaston Bertrand Foundation
N° inv. 132

Using a palette of blueish grey and ochre, Bertrand amplified the distorting and expressive stylisation of figures. The arms of the two lateral nudes look like creepers: a stylistic particularity characterizing many of the figures and portraits later painted by the artist. At the centre of the composition, between the two nude women, the theme of the family is represented by a man, a woman and a child. This confers a clearly symbolic nature to the painting, which is quite unique in Bertrand’s work. According to the painter, this oil painting was created at the request of Walter Schwarzenberg who wished to exhibit a series of works inspired by the “mother and child” theme in the Dietrich Gallery, where Bertrand had been invited for an exhibition in 1942. “As I used to go very frequently to the seaside, I got the idea of representing figures on the beach and I followed that idea: there are nude women and one pregnant woman; from that scene emerges the continuity of life, the child and then the education of that child”. After this rather unique painting, which was completed before the end of the war, Bertrand was not inspired by nude figures any more. From then on, the painter got more interested in his models’ appearance, clothes, jewellery or even in the distinctive elements related to their professions.