«Jean-Jacques Sempé, cartoonist »
PARIS – On 19 June 2021, under the direction of expert Eric Leroy, Artcurial will present the sale «Jean-Jacques Sempé, cartoonist ». The 54 works, comprising cartoons, album and magazine covers – include black and white illustrations in Indian ink and colour illustrations in watercolour and coloured pencil.
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It will be an opportunity to discover the different elements of Sempé’s work and career, starting with drawings of everyday scenes, observed through the artist’s mischievous eye: on a bike, at the framer’s, a young ballerina, at the opera…
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We then follow his career in the US with cover illustrations for the American cultural magazine The New Yorker. Sempé has been one of the most frequently commissioned artists for this magazine, with a hundred covers to his name, images of everyday scenes in the heart of the city that never sleeps. He has worked for the magazine since 1978, as well as drawing for Punch and Sports Illustrated.
© Artcurial.
Finally, we discover his lyrical drawings of Parisian life, illustrating the capital’s most iconic places: in the Jardin du Luxembourg, at Saint Sulpice, an image of Paris in the rain and a bus on a bridge, crossing the Seine at night.
© Artcurial.
« Appearing on the art market for the first time will be an exceptional ensemble of drawings by this poetic genius, full of humour. An occasion not to be missed! »
Eric Leroy, Expert, Artcurial
The first sale dedicated to artwork coming under the hammer on 19 June reflects Sempé’s long career. The oldest illustrations on offer date from early 1960s and these include scenes of everyday life. We can see Deux cyclistes (est: 30 000 – 50 000 €) wandering through the streets, and spot a Petite ballerine (est: 30 000 – 50 000 €).
© Artcurial.
There are also humorous sketches such as Il était déjà comme ça avant! (est: 20 000 – 30 000 €), La cartomancienne (est : 10 000 – 15 000 €), and A l’opéra (est: 10 000 – 15 000 €) reflecting Sempé’s love of music.
© Artcurial.
We are also drawn into the illustrator’s world, visiting his favourite Parisian neighbourhoods: Jardin du Luxembourg (est : 20 000 – 30 000 € (lot 1) ; 20 000 – 30 000 € (lot 27)) and Saint-Sulpice (est : 15 000 -20 000 €). Some of these drawings trace his career in the United States. Sempé shows us the frenetic nature of life in New York with a Coursier (courier) winding his way through the streets of the Big Apple (est : 30 000 – 50 000€). Covers designed by Sempé for the The New Yorker include The Musicians in Central Park – 1983 (est :30 000 – 50 000 €) and a colourful scene of celebration 4th of July (est: 30 000 – 50 000 €).
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Finally, we also discover Sempé’s love of sport with his covers for Sports Illustrated, one of the biggest weekly sporting magazines in America, with Droit au but (est : 20 000 – 30 000 €) and L’entraînement (est : 15 000 – 25 000 €).
© Artcurial.
«Jean-Jacques Sempé, cartoonist »
Born in Bordeaux on 17 August 1932, Jean-Jacques Sempé, known as Sempé, is a French cartoonist. He started sketching at the age of 12, his early drawings already full of humour. From the 1950s his work was published in Sud-Ouest, initially signed « DRO » and later Sempé.
He arrived in Paris in 1951 at the age of 19, and three years later, following his time in the army, he met the French writer and cartoonist René Goscinny, in the offices of the Belgian press agency World Press, on the Champs-Elysées. This proved to be significant. Sempé was taken on by, amongst others, the Belgian weekly publication, Le Moustique, for whom he drew a character for the cover called Nicolas. Encouraged by his editor-in-chief to turn this into a comic-strip, he enlisted the help of his friend René Goscinny, who also worked for the paper, to write the story-line. The project took some time to come to fruition, appearing as an illustrated story three years later.
© Artcurial.
Meanwhile, Sempé was also publishing illustrations in a variety of publications such as Le Rire, Noir et Blanc, Ici Paris, Samedi soir, France Dimanche as well as Paris Match, Le Figaro, Pilote, Punch and Esquire. At the invitation of Françoise Giroud, he published drawings every week in L’Express for a period of ten years, between 1965 and 1975. In 1978, his work started to appear abroad, with his first cover illustration for The New Yorker.There have been more than a hundred since then.
© Artcurial.
«Jean-Jacques Sempé, cartoonist »
Auction by Artcurial, Paris
19 June 2021 – 14:30h
