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On three we go? Many of Jean-Jacques Sempé's drawings celebrate the joy of being together. Childish friendships of a summer or a lifetime, in a duo or in an organized gang... but always to make the 400 moves, because it's still too early to be wise. Our little group in swimsuit fuse arm in arm to reach the sea, in an impatient and carefree moment where we hurry to be happy.

Solitude or multitude? Jean-Jacques Sempé constructs most of his drawings by staging his characters absorbed by the crowd or freely lonely. Here the tightrope walker, symbol of the solitude between heaven and earth, is closely followed by a whole agglutinated mass. A comic gathering, like birds perched high up on electric wires, sign of a sudden need to find a balance between being alone... and (badly) accompanied.

“When I’m grown up, I will buy myself a classroom, but just so that I can play in it.” Goscinny invented a child’s language that appealed to children and made their parents smile. Paired with Sempé’s wonderful drawings, the stories of Little Nicholas became international bestsellers and achieved the status of classics of French literature. The small schoolboy’s success was primarily based on the amazing closeness of a magical duo: Goscinny and Sempé. The two young authors created a whole universe. “Goscinny turned up with a text in which a child, Nicolas, talked about his life with his friends, who all had strange names - Rufus, Alceste, Maixent, Agnan, Clotaire - while the assistant principal was called Bouillon (Broth). We were on the way: René had hit on the right formula”, said Sempé. Little Nicolas’ first adventure was published on 29 March 1959 in Sud Ouest Dimanche. The response from the newspaper’s readership was enthusiastic. For seven years, Goscinny and Sempé brought alive Nicolas every single week, creating 222 stories in the process. They brought alive their own childhood memories through Nicolas and his friends. “Although I was never a Gaul or a cowboy, I was a child, as was Sempé, of course. The stories were inspired by his memories and my own memories, feelings rather than actual memories, such as the smell of pain au chocolat at the end of the school day, the atmosphere at playtime, all the bustle of childhood that Sempé really and truly captured”, said Goscinny. 

Sempé Puzzle Orchestra, 1000 pieces.

Made in France, size 48 × 68.5 cm.

For several years now, Soledad has been collaborating with Image Republic, creating a very colourful collection of feminine illustrations.

Discover the French Alps by Monsieur Z, by taking the famous eggs, these gondolas from the 1970s, leading to the top of the slopes. Perfect-looking skiers wind their way gracefully in the shade of the peaks, under the eternal snow.

For several years now, Soledad has been collaborating with Image Republic, creating a very colourful collection of feminine illustrations.

For several years now, Soledad has been collaborating with Image Republic, creating a very colourful collection of feminine illustrations.

Sempé Puzzle Tulips, 1000 pieces.

Made in France, size 48 × 68.5 cm.

Drawing on the excessiveness of his favorite cities, Paris and New York, Jean-Jacques Sempé always manages to combine urbanism and poetry, in compositions that (re)reconcile the minuscule and the gigantic. So, no matter how far away the horizon may be, all you have to do is bend over and the buildings will let the moonlight escape. Let's meet up for a sweet night at the seventh skyscraper.

Puzzle Sempé Chat à New York, 1000 pièces.

Fabriqué en France, dimensions 48 × 68,5 cm.

In many of his drawings, Jean-Jacques Sempé takes pleasure in giving an answer to the famous mystery that surrounds the lives of our animals in our absence. The cartoonist lends them almost human behavior, humorous reflections of our ways of being. Thus, the cat, tired of the frantic pace of a city he only knows through the window, seems happy to find "his" bed. Because when the cat is not there...