With a lovingly ironic stroke, Jean-Jacques Sempé was on the trail of the little man as well as the rich and beautiful. Now the illustrator of the well-known children’s book stories “Little Nick” has died.
Whether at school, at home or playing with his friends: Nick is always ready to prank. Jean-Jacques Sempé has drawn numerous stories of the bright kid, which have sold millions of copies. Now the French author of the world-famous children’s book series, which has been translated into more than 30 languages, has died at the age of 89, according to the AFP news agency, citing Sempé’s wife.
The draftsman and cartoonist left over 40 illustrated books to posterity, including his greatest success “Der kleine Nick”. The series, originally “Le Petit Nicolas”, was created together with the lyricist René Goscinny, author of the Asterix books, who died in 1977. Sempé describes a childhood that he always dreamed of. The first adventures were published in comic form in a Belgian magazine in 1956 before being reprinted in the regional newspaper “Sud-Ouest” in 1959.
The imperfect human being as subject
In the mid-’60s, Goscinny decided to put an end to the crazy ideas of the Dreikäsehoch. Since then, the classic children’s book has been reissued regularly, as a comic or as books of his collected adventures. In 2009, the adventures came to the big screen for the first time.
Sempé drew stories about people in their imperfection, the tiny individual in a monstrous environment, or the educated middle-class with his whims. With his lovingly ironic stroke, he was on the trail of the odd to quirky charm of the bourgeoisie, as well as the little man who wants to stand out from the crowd, or the rich and beautiful.
The artist was born on August 17, 1932 near Bordeaux. He published his first drawings as early as 1950, initially under the pseudonym DRO, alluding to the English verb “to draw”. A few years later he designed cartoons for magazines such as “Paris Match”, “Marie Claire”, “L’Express” and the renowned magazine “The New Yorker”, for which he drew more than 50 covers. In addition to Patrick Süskind’s worldwide hits “Der kleine Nick” and “The Story of Herr Sommer”, he has published many of his own books, including a work in which he looks back on his time as a child.
As he tells in the picture book “Children”, which was also published in German in 2012, his own childhood and youth as the son of a grocer were rather depressing. Constant money problems and fighting parents. He got into trouble at school and later dropped out of his apprenticeship with a wine merchant. He started drawing at the age of twelve and thanks to his talent he received a young talent award at the age of 19. He later explained that he couldn’t do anything else that made sense. It had been his secret dream to become a jazz musician – like his idol Duke Ellington.
close observer
In his stories he analyzed and ordered the world and the people. He never exempted himself. “I draw my own weaknesses,” the artist once said. And because he was always lenient towards his characters, who were often stuck in complicated human relationships, the critics also called him the “merciful observer of human comedy”.
Showing people in ridiculous situations is not fun for him, he once explained. He prefers to portray people for whom he feels more sympathy than antipathy. He was never concerned with superficial irony or ambiguous wit, but with the precision of observation that makes his stories so appealing, whether it’s the musician on the deserted train platform, the modern manager at the airport, or the bored boat owner in Saint Tropez.
The shy draftsman observed people and philosophized about life for more than 60 years. His tales of their laxities and falsehoods, their joys and disappointments great and small, earned him the reputation of being one of the “greatest sociologists”. (dpa)