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France’s ‘Little Nicolas’ illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempe dies aged 89

Jean-Jacques Sempe, who illustrated the beloved "Little Nicolas" series of French children's books, has died aged 89.

Published: 12 August 2022 08:28 CEST
France's 'Little Nicolas' illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempe dies aged 89
Jean-Jacques Sempe has died aged 89. (Photo: Jacques Demarthon / AFP)

As well as his work on “Le Petit Nicolas”, an idealised vision of childhood in 1950s France that became an international best-seller, Sempe also illustrated more New Yorker magazine covers than any other artist.

“The cartoonist Jean-Jacques Sempe died peacefully (Thursday) evening… at his holiday residence, surrounded by his wife and his close friends,” Marc Lecarpentier, his biographer and friend, told AFP.

Sempe, who originally wanted to be a jazz pianist and had a difficult childhood, dropped out of school aged 14 before lying about his age to join the army.

Army life didn’t agree with him, however, and he began selling drawings to Parisian newspapers.

While working at a press agency, he befriended cartooning legend Rene Goscinny of “Asterix” fame and together in 1959 they invented “Little Nicolas”.

“The Nicolas stories were a way to revisit the misery I endured while growing up while making sure everything came out just fine,” Sempe said in 2018.

Today, the books are international best-sellers, with more than 15 million copies sold in 45 countries, and have been adapted into a popular film and cartoon series.

But in 1959 they went largely unnoticed, and he continued to sell drawings to newspapers to make ends meet, an early career he described as “horrible”.

It was only in 1978 when he was hired by The New Yorker that he found sustainable success.

“I was almost 50 and for the first time in my life, I existed! I had finally found my family,” he said.

Childhood

Sempe was born near Bordeaux in the village of Pessac in 1932, the illegitimate son of an affair his mother had with her boss.

He lived in an abusive foster home before his mother took him back, only to subject him to her own violent streak.

“Come closer, I’ll slap you so hard the wall will slap you back,” he remembered her telling him.

They lived with his alcoholic stepfather. Sempe’s true paternity was a mystery that would haunt him for life.

“You don’t know who you are, what you’re built on,” he later said.

In his work, Sempe put diminutive characters in an outsized world of soft lines, revealing amusing and sometimes caustic truths about the world without ever resorting to mockery.

But the kindness that Sempe showed his subjects was in stark contrast to the misery of his own upbringing.

“You never get over your childhood,” he revealed well into his 80s, having avoided the subject for decades.

“You try to sort things out, to make your memories prettier. But you never get over it.”   

For many years, Sempe refused to believe in his talent, attributing what he achieved to hard work and sacrifice.

The artist said he could spend as long as three weeks getting a single drawing right and that he was capable of anything – “not bathing, not sleeping” – to finish work on time.

“The jazz, the tender irony, the subtle intelligence … we will not be able to forget Jean-Jacques Sempe,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote.

Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak added that his drawings were “timeless.”

“With tenderness, poetry and mischief… he taught us to look at the world with the eyes of a child,” she tweeted.

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CULTURE

Backstage artisans keep Moulin Rouge kicking

Even with the famous sails of its windmill gone, the Moulin Rouge never lets up: twice a night, 365 nights a year, in a whirlwind of feathers, rhinestones and sequins.

Published: 6 May 2024 08:13 CEST
Backstage artisans keep Moulin Rouge kicking

The sails of the 135-year-old cabaret in the Montmartre district of Paris collapsed last month — the cause remains unknown.

But with some 1,700 spectators still coming every evening, the show must go on. And while the 60-strong troupe of “Doriss Girls” — named after legendary choreographer Doris Haung — get all the attention, creating and maintaining their costumes is another huge and highly skilled job.

The show has daunting annual requirements: nearly 1,000 tailor-made outfits each requiring up to 250 hours of assembly, 800 pairs of shoes, and not forgetting the three kilometres of ostrich-feather boas.

READ MORE: 5 things to know about Paris’ iconic Moulin Rouge

The clacking of sewing machines backstage is a near-constant soundtrack before and after — and sometimes during — shows.

“We are on every evening. The costumes wear out… But the show must always be the same, at the highest quality,” the cabaret’s general director, Jean-Victor Clerico, 38, told AFP.

In the same family for four generations, the Moulin Rouge started buying up small artisan workshops in the 2000s — partly experts in featherwork and embroidery — that were struggling to survive in modern-day Paris.

“These artisans are a living heritage that risked disappearing, and they are essential for the show,” said Clerico.

“It was the duty of the Moulin to perpetuate their existence and allow the transmission of their knowledge to younger generations,” he added.

Mine Verges, 88, a costume designer since the 1960s, was one of the first to come under the Moulin’s umbrella.

Her workshop supplies and maintains the troupe, as well as many other clients.

“The most complicated costumes are those of the cabaret. Everything must be much more solid than normal clothing, and when there are feathers, it must above all be pleasant for the dancers,” she told AFP.

“Le Moulin was the first cabaret with whom I worked and it will be the last,” she said, adding that she was pleased her savoir-faire will be passed down.

Featherwork

Supplier to haute couture houses such as Hermes and Louis Vuitton, Maison Fevrier was set up in 1929 and is the last featherwork workshop in the heart of Paris.

Its “plumasserie” (fine feather work) has been officially recognised as a “living heritage” by the French government.

It became part of the Moulin family in 2009 and handles some three tonnes of ostrich, pheasant and rooster feathers for the cabaret each year.

Embroidery is handled by Atelier Valentin using the ancestral technique of Luneville crochet and chain stitch.

“The marvellous has always fascinated me. There is no limit to what you can embroider: sequins, pearls, rhinestones, repurposed metal pieces… The only imperative for a stage costume is to be strong,” said its director, Caroline Valentin, whose other clients including the Paris Opera, Disney, Givenchy and the Academie Francaise.

Shoes are another integral part of the show, especially for the energetic high-kicking antics of the Can-Can that conclude every evening.

Clairvoy, a cobblers founded in 1945, has been part of the Moulin’s operation since 2007.

Nicolas Maistriaux, 45, and his team make the troupe’s shoes, taking up to 60 hours to assemble each pair, not counting their maintenance and renewal when the dancers’ heels wear them out.

Kylie Minogue also called on Maison Clairvoy for her recent tour.

“Our jobs are rewarding beyond anything,” said Valentin. “We have the absolutely immense chance to create beauty… That’s what artistic craftsmanship is all about.”

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