FLAMINIO BERTONI
(1903-1964)
He was born in Varese, northern Italy, in 1903 and studied at the Francesco Daverio technical school where he graduated in 1918.
Following the death of his father, he
broke off his studies and found a job as a joiner’s
apprentice at the local body maker’s
“Carrozzeria Macchi” before moving to the
tinker’s department, where his passion for
automobiles took off.
In 1923, thanks to his considerable talent for drawing, he was transferred to the planning department of Macchi Industries where a visiting team of technicians from France invited him to Paris. From then on his life was shared between Italy and France.
In 1929, after a brief period in Paris and as a result of
dissatisfaction with the management, he quitted Macchi and
opened his own workshop of drawings and projects.
In 1932 he was hired by Citroën for which in 1934 he
created the Traction Avant in plasticine: for the first
time in history a model of a car was realized instead of on
paper. At The Citroën he also begun to work on a new car,
the TPV (2 CV) presented in 1948 at the Paris Salon de
l'Automobile and which became a word phenomenon.
At about the same time (1935) one of his previous designs for a "total view" bus with cabin above the engine was built by the Italian firm Baroffio.
In 1949 he obtained a degree in architecture, starting his
architectural activities with various projects in Paris and
suburbs. In the field of architecture he patented in 1956 a
novel system for the construction of family houses thanks
to which over 1000 woud be built in Saint Louis USA in only
100 days.
In 1955 his design masterpiece, the DS 19 , was presented
at the Salon de l’Automobile in Paris. As well as
marking this century’s automobile history, this event
placed Bertoni among the Masters of Design. When the
Citroën DS 19 was shown at the “Triennale ” in
Milan it obtained the prize for best industrial work of
art.
In 1956 Bertoni the architect invented a new system of building family houses that led to the construction of 1,000 houses in 100 days in Saint Louis in the USA.
In his artistic career he was twice awarded the first prize for drawing and sculpture, during the International Free Art Show in Paris in 1953 and 1954, and his sculptures again were awarded first prize in 1959 and 1962.
In 1961 his last work as a designer, the Citroën Ami 6, was
produced and the French Minister for Culture, the Nobel
Prize Winner André Malraux, nominated him Master of the
Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic. It was
the fair recognition to a man who had given so much to
French culture.
He fell sick with hepatitis and died in Paris in 1964, far
away from Italy and disowned by Italian people who loved
his 2CV and DS' armonious lines whithout knowing that the
author was one of them.
