Via San Rocco, Sala Comacin Italia

1961, watercolour on “pur chiffon” paper, 39 x 28,5 cm
Private coll., Brussels
N° inv. 907

In 1961, the artist stayed on the island of Comacina (Lake Como). The island, situated at the fringes of the Italian Alps, was once owned by the Belgian State and small bungalows were regularly made available for Belgian artists.
Bertrand expressed his love of architecture in the dozen watercolours that he made there, inspired by the housing blocks of the small city of Comacina. The perspective of the narrow streets inspired him some compositions based on a remarkable rhythm of vertical lines which create a mosaic of contrasted rectangles and trapezium. As always, Bertrand took distance from the object so that the real appearance of the place naturally vanishes.