09/02/2026
From the University Guild Art Collection: Young Girl With Doll | by Bertoldo Taubert | Oil on Canvas, 21” x 12.5”
Who Was the Man Who Painted Young Girl With Doll?
Hanging on the west wall of Scott Hall at Northwestern University is a charming oil portrait of a young girl tenderly cuddling her doll. The painting radiates innocence and tranquility—a striking contrast to the remarkable and dangerous life of the man who painted it.
Bertoldo Taubert, an Italian-born French painter, was born in 1915 into an artistic family. His father was a well-known portrait painter whose subjects included Pope Pius XI and King Victor Emmanuel III. The family moved to Paris when Bertoldo was a child, and he spent most of his life there.
Taubert was known for modernist landscapes, still lifes, and deeply contemplative religious and ceremonial works. There are no known public photographs or physical descriptions of Bertoldo Taubert, perhaps because he was an active and heroic member of the French Resistance during WWII. Records detail a highly dangerous and covert role that he played during the German Occupation of France. He utilized underground networks to help over 300 Jews escape from Nazi-occupied France. In 1944 his activities were discovered by the German Gestapo. He was captured and imprisoned until the war ended.
His wartime experiences may have influenced the somber, spiritual character of his later work. After the war, he also painted prominent figures, including Winston Churchill.
The University Guild Art Committee purchased Young Girl With a Doll in 1964 from the Findlay Gallery in Chicago, using money from its Art Savings Fund.
Taubert died in Paris in 1974.
-Kay Burlingham, Art Collection Director
