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Sempé unveils the back of the set of a great French restaurant in Manhattan. The calm of the waiter who is about to enter the room does not suggest the energy of the chefs and the kitchen clerks who assist them. French gastronomy at work. 

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

“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. 

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.

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.

This prelude to lunch reveals all of Jean-Jacques Sempé's talent for turning a Parisian bistro into the theater of everyday life. With malice, the cartoonist depicts a comic contrast between the character's bliss and the extraordinary banality of the object of his desire: eggs in a casserole dish set in majesty. Like an invitation to take a break from the hustle and bustle of his life and the city, to savor the simple pleasure of being alone, eyes in the eggs.

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

With this child of the cities staying in the country, Jean-Jacques Sempé illustrates a comic generation clash. Indeed, youth and its gentle carelessness, amplified during the summer vacations, is a subject dear to the cartoonist. Suddenly, the suspended rhythm gives him time to take his time... and to cultivate his secret garden.

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.

A stolen moment from a dance class, where the clumsy chatter of the "little rats" escapes from the window. Passionate about music, Jean-Jacques Sempé regularly represents its corollary: dance, in its surge of freedom and lightness. However, the rigour of the disciplined ballerinas is in stark contrast to the graffiti of little rascals... who no longer know which foot to dance on. 

Jean-Jacques Sempé's tiny characters always seem to move in an environment that is not at their scale. The draftsman thus plays with these contrasts, as here with the flute player in the center of a gigantic apartment. A dictatorship of excess that the little girl would be the only one to challenge, because she doesn't need that to be up to scratch.