L'offrant
(the offeror)

L'offrant

1977, acrylic on canvas, 116 x 89 cm
Coll. Degroof-Petercam Bank, Brussels
N° inv. 1388

This work is the result of a long creative process. It was painted in 1977 but first took the shape of multiple drawings which were produced in 1958 after a trip to Spain. Among all the masterpieces exhibited in the Prado (Madrid), Bertrand admired the fragments of the Romanesque frescos coming from Ermita San Baudilio in the small city of Berlanga.
He was inspired by the religious figures represented in the Iberian frescos and immediately drew around ten sketches. In 1977, the drawings based on these sketches gave rise to three large figures which are among the most emblematic ones. Bertrand used acrylic – a material that he had never used before - for these major paintings entitled Grande figure de prophète (Tall prophet figure), L’ange fabuleux (Fabulous angel) and L’offrant (the offerer). Through the combination of coloured shapes, L’offrant recalls the works of the Spanish artist Joan Miro.

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