Claus Bertermann (1965) - Nocturne

Artist: Claus Bertermann

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: www.bertermann.art

Claus Bertermann is an internationally established contemporary artist whose market profile is backed by international market authority and exceptional secondary market results. Known for his powerful, large-format abstract works, Bertermann has consistently commanded high-tier prices at the world's most prestigious auction houses. His top realized prices include €18,900 at C. h. r. i. s. t. i. e´s Paris (Retro Zen), €15,240 at S. o. t. h. e. b. y´s Cologne (F5TP#CB), and €15,120 at C. h. r. i. s. t. i. e´s Paris (Whispershade). With additional successful sales at V. a. n. H. a. m, A. r. t. c. u. r. i. a. l, T. a. j. a. n, and D. o. r. o. t. h. e. u. m, Bertermann's work is a proven asset for serious collectors worldwide.

The New Expressionist Series Continues

With a Master's degree in Architecture (TU Munich), Bertermann originally gained global recognition for his "architectural strata" technique—layering and scraping oil paint to build spatial depth. In 2026 he opened a radically new chapter: figurative scenes in heightened, emotionally charged colour, guided by the painters of German Expressionism — a ground set down in coarse brushstrokes, with the drawn oil-stick line laid on top of it afterwards and never worked into it. "Nocturne" belongs to that series and takes it into the most private room there is: a bed, at night, with two people asleep in it.

International Artistic Footprint

With more than 1,000 large format works in private and institutional collections across the globe—including a monumental triptych at his alma mater, the Technical University of Munich—Bertermann continues to bridge the gap between rigorous structure and intuitive freedom. This Catawiki offering presents a rare opportunity to acquire a key work from an exciting new series by an artist with a solidified international auction record.

Key details for collectors

– Title: Nocturne
– Year: 2026
– Dimensions (H x W): 150 x 200 cm (59 × 79 inches)
– Medium: Acrylic and oil stick on canvas
– Signed by the artist on the front and back side
– Original, one-of-a-kind artwork - MADE BY A REAL PERSON, NOT AI.
– Ships rolled without frame

What makes this piece unique

Every couple exists in two versions. The daytime version negotiates. Whose turn it is, who said what, who forgot to call back, who is being unreasonable about the thermostat. Two people, two positions, and a running score that neither of them ever quite admits to keeping.

The night-time version has never heard of any of this.

Look at the pillow in "Nocturne". Somewhere after midnight the two heads have drifted towards each other until they are almost stacked, cheek against temple, and the painting has quietly made them the same face: the same closed eyes drawn in the same blue line, the same yellow light on the skin, the same small red mouth, the same slight tilt. A long red rope of hair has slid down across the blanket, and at the point where it crosses the orange there is no telling any more whether it is her hair or his hand resting on her.

Here is the twist. Neither of them knows.

This is the most tender moment in their entire relationship, and it has never had a witness. It only happens while both of them are unconscious; the second either one wakes up, it is over, and by breakfast the negotiations will resume. The two people in this bed will never see what their marriage looks like at three in the morning.

Only you will. A nocturne is music written for the night, and this one is being played to an audience of exactly one—while the performers sleep through their best work.

And the one thing in the room that stays awake is the bed itself. The iron frame, with its scrolls and curls, is the only hard, cold, precisely drawn object in the picture, bending around the two sleepers like a bracket around a sentence it is not allowed to interrupt.

Why it is worth the price

This is a large-scale, museum-sized painting (150 x 200 cm) in landscape format from Bertermann's 2026 expressionist series. For collectors, works from the opening year of a new series carry a meaningful provenance marker, and within this series "Nocturne" holds a distinct position: it is the bedroom picture, a canvas about two figures who do not look at each other, at the room or at the viewer—because they are not awake to look at anything.

It also reverses the usual temperature of its subject. Night scenes are expected to be blue and hushed. "Nocturne" is one of the loudest canvases in the series: orange, vermilion and cadmium yellow sit exactly where the sleepers are least conscious, as if the painting were showing what is happening inside the sleep rather than the dark room around it.

Technically the canvas is built in two separated moves, which is the method behind Bertermann's figurative work. First the ground: the orange mass of the blanket, the blue pillow, the green, magenta and orange wall and the pale lilac floor are laid in with coarse, broad brushstrokes that keep the movement of the arm visible and settle nothing precisely. Only then the drawing: the oil stick goes over that painted field and sets the contours — the violet-blue iron bed frame with its scrolls, both sleeping faces and their closed eyes, the red strands of hair, the green and crimson lines that cross the blanket. The drawn line does not follow the painted ground beneath it; it lies on top of it and keeps its own authority. Freedom below, precision above—an architect's instinct for structure carrying an expressionist's appetite for colour.

Visual description & condition

The composition shows two people asleep in a bed, seen from slightly above. Their heads lie together on a large blue pillow at the right of the canvas, the two faces placed one above the other, cheek to temple, both with closed eyes. The faces are painted in cadmium and lemon yellow with orange passages, eyes, brows and shadows drawn in blue oil stick, with small red-orange mouths and noses. Hair in orange and red falls from the heads to the left and down across the blanket in long drawn strands.

The bodies are covered by a broad orange and vermilion blanket that fills the centre and left of the picture, crossed by green, red and dark crimson oil-stick strokes and by a small violet scribbled passage at its centre. An iron bed frame drawn in violet, blue and black oil stick arches across the upper part of the canvas, with decorative scrolls and curls at the upper left and upper right.

The background is built from a magenta, red and orange field at the upper left, a green passage at the top centre and a deep cobalt and turquoise field at the upper right. At the lower left a pale blue and grey field sits beside the blanket; the lower edge of the canvas is a pale lilac and pink floor with short black strokes beneath the bed. A violet passage fills the lower right corner.

Colours visibly run and merge throughout; perspective and anatomy are intentionally distorted to prioritise emotional weight over realism. The work is signed in dark violet oil stick at the lower right.

The work is unframed and not stretched. Condition is excellent. All surface irregularities are intentional and integral to the artist's process.

Background / artistic context

Claus Bertermann works within contemporary expressive figurative painting, focusing on states of being rather than mere representation. With his 2026 series he placed the human figure inside charged colour situations, drawing directly on the legacy of German Expressionism: bent perspective, heightened colour, a surface kept deliberately fluid, and a drawn line that stays visibly on top of it.

Sleep has a long and slightly uncomfortable history in European painting. The sleeper is almost never alone in the picture: there is a god looking down, a lover watching, a demon crouching on the chest, a painter taking advantage of a subject who cannot object. The sleeping figure exists to be looked at by someone who is awake.

"Nocturne" removes every one of those watchers. Nobody in this room is awake—no lover, no intruder, no narrative. What remains is the thing those older pictures never had time for: two people who have stopped performing for each other, and a painting that lets the viewer see, for once, what that looks like.

Practical details for buyers:

Original, one-of-a-kind artwork
Acrylic and oil stick on canvas
Dimensions (H x W): 150 x 200 cm (59 × 79 inches)
Signed by the artist on the front and back side
Certificate of authenticity included
Shipped rolled (not framed or stretched)
Professional packaging and worldwide shipping with premium shipping companies like UPS.

The canvas includes an additional continuous white border of approximately 10 cm (approx. 4 inches) on all sides beyond the painted surface. This margin allows the artwork to be professionally restretched on museum-quality stretcher bars up to 6 cm (approx. 2.4 inches) in depth, resulting in a clean, frameless, gallery-style presentation without the need for a decorative frame.

Please note that the artwork is sold unframed and without stretcher bars. Professional stretching is the responsibility of the buyer. The painting is shipped rolled for safe international transport and flexible installation according to the buyer's preference.

The artwork is signed on both front and reverse, with title, year, and the artist's full name inscribed on the back.

Please note regarding the room views:

Some of the photographs show the painting digitally placed in an interior. These room views are AI-visualisations, created to give an impression of scale and presence only — they are not photographs of the actual work hanging in a room. Both the size proportions and the colours shown in them may differ from the original. The binding references are the dimensions stated above (H x W) and the studio photograph of the painting itself. Please also note that colours may appear differently depending on screen calibration.