Claus Bertermann (1965) - La Perla

Artist: Claus Bertermann

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: www.bertermann.art

The story behind "La Perla"

She came in for a coffee, but the coffee is not what keeps her here. Chin resting on her hand, a red coat around her shoulders and a blue scarf thrown over one side, she looks straight at you with calm green eyes and all the time in the world. Around her the café hums in yellow, orange and green: tall windows, plants, a small round table. And at her ear hangs one large teardrop pearl, catching the light like a little moon.

Every painting of a woman with a pearl earring talks to one famous ancestor: Vermeer’s girl in her blue and yellow turban, turning over her shoulder for a single second in a quiet, dark room. Here the old scene is turned around. She is not glancing back, she has arrived and taken her seat; the dark room has become a café full of colour; and the blue has slipped from a turban into a scarf she wears exactly as she likes. A pearl grows slowly, layer by layer, until it shines, and her face has that same quiet glow. In Spanish, la perla is also what you call a person who is rare and precious. So the earring is only the hint. The real pearl is the one sitting at the table.

About the artist

Claus Bertermann holds a Master's degree in Architecture (TU Munich) and is an internationally collected contemporary artist, with more than 1,000 large-format works in private and institutional collections, including a monumental triptych at the Technical University of Munich. His abstract paintings have reached top auction results such as €18,900 at C. h. r. i. s. t. i. e´s Paris and €15,240 at S. o. t. h. e. b. y´s Cologne, with further sales at V. a. n. H. a. m, A. r. t. c. u. r. i. a. l and D. o. r. o. t. h. e. u. m.

In 2026 he started a radically new figurative series: people and scenes in bold, emotional colour, inspired by German Expressionism. First he paints the background with loose, broad brushstrokes. Then he draws the figures on top with oil stick, in clear and confident lines.

Visual description

A young woman with dark, pinned-up hair streaked with blue and red leans on a café table, her chin resting on her hand. Her face is drawn in fine blue oil-stick lines, with green eyes and coral lips, above a glowing red coat and a broad cobalt-blue scarf. The café behind her bursts with yellow and orange window frames, green plants and a white round table with a sketched cup at the lower right. Signed in green oil stick at the lower right.

One detail for those who look twice: the round lamp on the wall at the far left shines in the same silvery white as her pearl, as if the whole room had borrowed its light from her ear.

Why it is worth the price

A large, museum-scale painting from the first year of a radically new figurative series, at 200 x 150 cm an upright, life-size portrait that holds a room the way a person does. Its fiery red and deep blue give it real presence on a wall, while the single pearl draws the eye back again and again. An elegant, quietly confident work for collectors who love portraits, the great tradition of the pearl-earring painting, and stories that reveal a second meaning on closer look.

Key details for collectors

– Title: La Perla
– Year: 2026
– Dimensions (H x W): 200 x 150 cm (79 × 59 inches)
– Medium: Acrylic and oil stick on canvas
– Original, one-of-a-kind artwork
– Signed by the artist on the front and back side; title, year and the artist's full name inscribed on the back
– Certificate of authenticity included
– Condition: excellent; all surface irregularities are intentional and part of the artist's process
– Sold unframed and without stretcher bars; shipped rolled for safe international transport
– Additional white border of approx. 10 cm (approx. 4 inches) on all sides, allowing professional restretching on museum-quality stretcher bars up to 6 cm (approx. 2.4 inches) deep for a clean, frameless, gallery-style presentation
– Professional stretching is the responsibility of the buyer
– Professional packaging and worldwide shipping with premium carriers such as UPS

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.

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