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They Said One Day We’d Be Free (c.1965)

GIUSEPPE BERTOLINI (1939-2020)

A pair of engravings ex Artist proof; both signed lower right
In a pair of French mid-century mirror inlay frames with carved outer edge

37cm x 27cm in the frame

SOLD

When you look at the man with outstretched arms one can’t help thinking of the moment in Withnail & I when, shortly after resolving to call himself Donald Twain, Withnail – striking an identical pose – proclaims to an empty Cumbrian volcano: ‘I’m gonna be a STAR!’ Likewise the girl demonstrably exhaling out of a window, recalls Audrey Hepburn strumming away to Moon River from the window of her Manhattan apartment in Breakfast in Tiffany’s. In any case they’re about as cool a pair of etchings as one could ever dream of.

Born in the ancient Etruscan city of Civita Castellana, Bertolini attended the city’s Art Institute before moving to Rome to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1960. In these Roman years he met numerous artists, including Pericle Fazzini (1913-1987) who hired him to work in his studio at via Margutta 51A, at the time the eye of a political and artistic storm. So inspired, he won the first prize for sculpture for young artists at the exhibition of Rome and Lazio at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni and thereafter remained a treasured figure in Roman cultural and artistic life.


If you would like to buy this picture (or see some more photographs), arrange a viewing or if you would just like to get in touch, then please call 01608-658003 or email [email protected]