His childhood had not been happy and yet, with his stroke, he created the most carefree of schoolboys, The little Nicolas. Every day, he illustrated newspapers and magazines, offering the press the light of dreams and poetry. Jean-Jacques Sempé, who died on August 11 at the age of 89, took a slightly offbeat and tender look at the comical nature of our lives. For this reason, and for the joyful delicacy of his line, the cartoonist has conquered over the years the status of chronicler of our time, for the better.
Born in 1932 in Pessac (Gironde), “natural child” raised without tenderness by his mother and his adoptive father, Sempé, stuttering and solitary, took refuge in dreams and drawing, already. Leaving school at the age of 12, he became a bicycle delivery man and made a living from odd jobs, before publishing, at the age of 18, his first drawing in South West Sunday. Called up, he manages to do his military service in Paris, discovers the party and especially the jazz in the clubs of the capital: Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker dazzle him.
“Think about not forgetting me”, under his latest drawing
Bound by friendship with René Goscinny, Jean-Jacques Sempé invents with him The little Nicolas, this facetious and endearing schoolboy, this childhood dream written by Goscinny and sketched by Sempé. Fifteen million albums sold, translations in 40 countries, The little Nicolas becomes a French emblem, and Sempé a sought-after cartoonist. Paris Matchwho published his latest drawing in its August 4, 2022 issue, a painter in action under which Sempé wrote: “Remember not to forget me”. But also France Sunday, Pilot, L’Express, The new observer, Le Figaro… In 1978, The New Yorker asks him for his cover, the first of a series of 106 plates for the prestigious American magazine.
Nothing is simple, Everything gets complicated, A slight lag, Loosely competitive, Unfathomable mysteries, Big dreams, Simple question of balance… Under evocative titles, Sempé publishes every year, from 1962 to 2015, a large album of his drawings with Éditions Denoël. “He told us about his world in which we, readers, could find ourselves. These elegant men by the swimming pools, these gentlemen in hats, even the cats on the windowsills… all seem to be wondering about their existence”. notes the cartoonist and author of comic strips Catherine Meurisse (1).
Musicians, schoolchildren, loners, dreamers…
“Sempé is someone who carries you, bewitches you, and accompanies you all your life. He is the best and most vital thing someone who writes and draws can bring to you”, greets Emmanuel Guibert, scriptwriter of the comic strip Ariol (published by Bayard) which also recounts a delicious childhood. Designers, comic strip authors, youth or press authors feed on his work, enrich themselves with his heritage, enjoy his humor and depth.
Small characters drowned in a vast world, jazz musicians, amateur painters, cyclists, schoolchildren on the go, whimsical ladies, solitaries, dreamers… Sempé engraves the era by making people laugh, smile, meditate and dream. “He said that when he started drawing, he wanted to draw happy people. He said it was madness, as humor drawing usually feeds on the misfortune of men. It was his character, he needed to be optimistic,” explains Catherine Meurisse.
Sempé sketches his characters in their little ridiculousness and their big questions. Everyone can find their way around, everyone keeps in mind their “predilection Sempé”. For Emmanuel Guibert, it is Marcellin Caillou, “the most beautiful book made for everyone and that children can read too”, as well as The Social Ascension of Monsieur Lambert. For Catherine Meurisse, the drawing of a little lady in a flowered dress and hat who speaks directly to God in a church. “That you don’t exist, fine. But at this point, it’s indecent! », throws the little lady. “It’s lovely, smiles the designer, and at the same time this drawing expresses all the questions that one can have about the world, whether one is a believer or not. »
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Jean-Jacques Sempe
August 17, 1932. Born in Pessac (Gironde).
1950. First publication of a drawing in South West Sunday.
1960.The little Nicolasfirst volume, text by Goscinny, drawings by Sempé.
1962. Nothing is simple, Denoel’s first great album. will follow Highs and lows, A slight lag, The musicians, Unfathomable mysteries, Raoul Taburin…
1978. First of his 106 covers for the American magazine The New Yorker.
2011-2012. Sempé retrospective at the town hall of Paris.
August 11, 2022. Death at 89 in Draguignan (Var).
August 19, 2022. Funeral in Paris, with a mass at 2 p.m. in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés church, followed by burial in the Montparnasse cemetery.