Status: 08/12/2022 00:46 a.m
The French draftsman Jean-Jacques Sempé is dead. This was announced by his biographer. Sempé became world famous with his illustrations for the series “Little Nick”. He was 89 years old.
The French illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé, who became famous with his series “Little Nick”, is dead. He died at the age of 89 just a few days before his 90th birthday, as the AFP news agency reported, citing Sempé’s biographer and friend Marc Lecarpentier . Sempé died peacefully in his holiday resort, “surrounded by his wife and close friends,” Lecarpentier explained. Sempé’s wife also confirmed her husband’s death.
Sempé became internationally known in particular for his illustrations in the series “Der kleine Nick” – originally “Le Petit Nicolas” – about a childhood in France in the 1950s. The character of the little boy was invented by Sempé and “Asterix” author René Goscinny. The first stories were published in comic form in a Belgian magazine in 1956, then in the regional newspaper “Sud-Ouest Dimanche” from March 29, 1959.
Within six years, more than 200 episodes were published about Nick, his always hungry friend Otto, the bespectacled nerd Adalbert and Franz who was ready to be beaten. They later appeared as books and were translated into 30 languages. 15 million copies have been sold in 45 countries, they have been filmed and adapted as an animated series.
More “The New Yorker” covers than anyone else
Sempé was born on August 17, 1932 near Bordeaux. He initially grew up in a violent foster family until his mother took him back – and thus exposed him to his stepfather’s violence. Sempé himself said in 2018 about the “Little Nick” series that for him it was “a way to relive the misery that I experienced in my childhood and at the same time make sure that everything turns out well”.
He published his first drawings as early as 1950, initially under a pseudonym. A few years later he designed cartoons for magazines such as “Paris Match”, “Marie Claire”, “L’Express” and “The New Yorker”, for which he drew more than 50 covers – more than any other artist.
France’s Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne paid tribute to the artist. “Sempé, that was the drawing, that was the text, it was the smile and the poetry, sometimes he had tears in his eyes from laughing, tonight it’s tears of emotion,” wrote Borne on Twitter.
“Merciful Observer of Human Comedy”
Sempé left over 40 illustrated books to posterity. He has drawn stories about people in their imperfections, the tiny individual in a monstrous environment, or the educated middle-class with their 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.
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”.