Showing posts with label Tout se Complique. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tout se Complique. Show all posts

Saturday, October 21, 2023

Sempé Books at Drouot

On Wednesday, a generous selection of cartoon books with original, personalized drawings by Jean-Jacques Sempé was sold at Drouot, Paris. A few of the sketches may have been separated from their books, or perhaps they were never a part of any books at all. The prices realized are available to subscribers only, but I did at least manage to capture a record of the presale estimates.














































Note:  My thanks to Claude Haber for informing me of this auction. This is his fifth contribution to the blog. See, that's all it takes.


I would appreciate hearing from "subscribers" who can access the prices realized for this Drouot sale.



04478

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Jean-Jacques Sempé's Tout se complique Signed with a Musical Drawing

A copy of Jean-Jacques Sempé's Tout se complique [Everything is Complicated] is inscribed by the artist to pianist John Philips. It has an original drawing of a pianist playing, if not the Moonlight Sonata, then perhaps a sonata in the moonlight. It was sold on eBay by Dunaway Books of St. Louis in September of 2007 for $135.50.

Jean-Jacques Sempé
Tout se complique, Denoël, 1962, 1964

Inscribed "Pour John Philips, Sempé" with a drawing of a pianist playing in the moonlight



Note:  Cartoons books with original drawings by Jean-Jacques Sempé (and others) are a specialty of the house here at Attempted Bloggery. Please send scans or photos of your own examples of the house special and we'll see what we can put on the menu.

Information about the pianist John Philips, likely a longtime friend of Sempé, would be welcome as well. Did he have a prosperous concert career? Did he record more than the Milhaud piano and ondes Martenot sonata?


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