GIBRAT

JEAN-PIERRE GIBRAT MATTÉO Sixième époque (1939-1940) (T.6), Futuropolis 2022 Original plate no. 23. Signed. Watercolor and acrylic inks on paper 36.2 × 47.5 cm (14.25 × 18.7 in.) Jean-Pierre Gibrat likes to punctuate his stories with "exterior night" panels, such as the one that opens this plate - where Mattéo's silhouette stands out like that of a Victor Hugo character. "When I was writing Le Sursis," he says, "I had the idea of alternating the moods of the pages: those on the left would take place at night, and those on the right, during the day... But the constraint risked weighing heavily. All the same! I dream of making an album that takes place entirely at night... After all, one of my father's cousins, hidden away like Julien Sarlat, observed an identical cycle. While his friends, students on vacation enjoying the sun or young peasants working in the fields, were very tanned, he stayed all white!" Juliette and Mattéo's union is the other strength of this board. Jean-Pierre Gibrat's work is usually modest: moments of naked passion are rare. That this scene begins through a window and ends on Juliette's beautiful, swooning face only adds to its value.