The French Cartoonist Who Limned New York City
French cartoonist Jean-Jacques Sempé’s favorite thing about New York is The New Yorker. The magazine that, since 1925, has celebrated humorous drawings to keep current events at arm’s length. The magazine whose uncompromising standards have allowed him to perfect his skills over the years.
Since 1978, over 100 of Sempé’s drawings have appeared in The New Yorker. Those drawings don’t always include New York, nor are they always necessarily based on a joke. Instead, they offer a collection of scenes where poetry discreetly flirts with reality, telling a story of an artist’s melancholy relationship with little details, where an idea of life and death is played out. Like a mirror that shows our reflection, his work only invites us to cheerful introspection with an anxious but benevolent irony.
Marc Lecarpentier: Do you remember your first trip to New York?
Jean-Jacques Sempé: Yes, quite well. It was in 1965, I believe, with my first editor at Denoël, Alex Grall. Philippe Rossignol, who ran the company, had invited me to accompany him. I knew that he spoke perfect English and knew the city well. I was delighted by this offer. We were simply tourists, simply visitors.
ML: From that
