Despite its unequivocal Frenchness, Sempe’s work touched a universal nerve, portraying culture-crossing human follies and neuroses. Photo: AFP
Family, friends and fans have paid tribute to French cartoonist Jean-Jacques Sempe, whose simple line drawings tinted with humour graced the covers of The New Yorker magazine and granted him international acclaim.
A funeral Mass for Sempe - affectionately known as J.J. in the United States - took place on Friday at the Church of Saint-Germain-des-Pres in Paris. Friends and relatives honoured the artist, who died last week at age 89, and his legacy. A private funeral was held at the city’s renowned Montparnasse cemetery.
Outside the church, a poster of Sempe's first New Yorker cover stood next to a black-and-white portrait of him festooned with flowers. The Aug 14, 1978 cover depicted the facade of a New York building, with a bald-headed bird with glasses in a suit perched on a high-up window and enlightened by pale yellow rays of sunshine.
The drawing epitomises the artist’s gentle ironic universe, sublimated by vivid watercolors and a breezy and seemingly effortless style. In his native France, he found fame with illustrations for the classic Le Petit Nicolas (Little Nicholas) children’s book series, and went on to specialise in drawings about life’s simple pleasures.
"It takes me a very long time, weeks or even months for me to get it right,” Sempe told The Associated Press in a 2011 interview. "You get thinking about something that little by little starts taking shape in your mind.”
Sempe captured the thin, fashionable haute bourgeoisie of Paris and mustachioed, beret-wearing townsfolk, all bearing hallmark hulking noses and replete with bicycles, baguettes, books and tractors. But he also found inspiration in The New Yorker's hometown, the magazine noted in an homage published on Instagram.
"I love the colours in New York,” he said. "They’re dynamic: bright yellows, greens, reds, and blues. Paris, where I live, is beautiful but it’s always gray. I love Paris, too, but it’s not the same.”
Workers adjust a big frontpage of a 'New Yorker' issue before Jean-Jacques Sempe's funeral ceremony at the Saint-Germain-des-Pres church in Paris on Aug 19. Photo: AP
He drew more than 100 covers for The New Yorker after meeting the magazine’s art director in Paris in 1978. Despite its unequivocal Frenchness, Sempe’s work touched a universal nerve, portraying culture-crossing human follies and neuroses.
"He marked several generations. You can’t find in the US a reader of the print version of the New Yorker who doesn’t know who Sempe is,” Francoise Mouly, the publication’s current art director, said in an interview with French newspaper Liberation.
Mouly praised his "universal way to address the point of view of individuals in daily life, common situations” in drawings that spoke to people from Paris to New York.
A 71-year-old French artist known as Gabs said Sempe inspired him to become a cartoonist.
"Sempe embodies Frenchness, the ways he depicted Paris, France’s little villages and scenes of daily life," and "a form of innocence and joy,” Gabs said at the funeral.
A woman holding a notebook with a drawing by Sempe arrives at Jean-Jacques Sempe's funeral ceremony at the Saint-Germain-des-Pres church in Paris on Friday. Photo: AP
French novelist Benoit Dutertre gave a poignant speech recalling his beloved friend who enjoyed biking and having a coffee in Left Bank cafes while smoking a cigarette, despite being sick during his last years.
"With a sip of humour, he was a great storyteller of France’s evolving society," he said.
Born Aug 17, 1932, in the southwestern city of Bordeaux, Sempe briefly followed the steps of his father - who worked as a traveling salesman - as a bicycle delivery boy for a wine merchant, then joined the army and was sent to Paris for basic training.
There, he canvassed newspaper editors to persuade them to publish his drawings, he said in his autobiography. One series of drawings, entitled Le Petit Nicolas and featuring a mischievous but goodhearted schoolboy, appeared in a Belgian paper. It would later grow into the book series that proved Sempe's most enduring success.
Anne Goscinny - former wife of Rene Goscinny, the author of Le Petit Nicolas who died in 1977 - addressed Sempe himself at the church service, saying: "You created le Petit Nicolas. You made all childhoods smile. Today you meet again with (Goscinny), I’m sure of it, and I hear you laugh until you weep.”
In 1962, Sempe published his first collection of drawings, Rien n’est simple (Nothing Is Simple). Some of his more than 40 books have been published in English in the US. He is survived by two children, Nicolas and Catherine. - AP
