HERMANN

HERMANN LES TOURS DE BOIS-MAURY Eloïse de Montgri (T.2), Glénat 1985 Original plate no. 43, prepublished in Vécu n° 6, August 1985. Signed. India ink on paper 36.6 × 47.7 cm (14.41 × 18.78 in.) There's something symphonic about Hermann's work. We're in the final sequence of the second album, where the Chevalier de Bois-Maury, on his way to the Holy Land, passes through the Pays de Caux, devastated by looters led by a strange shepherd, who is here occulted by a lovely lady, the ravishing Eloïse de Montgri. A masterpiece of storytelling with a tragic dimension. Hermann's mastery is to be found in the graphic score, which offers us a twirling point of view. The murder of the shepherd in the first two strips is punctuated by silence, as the sheep look on, astonished to lose their link with their shepherd. The camera plunges down to focus on the sheep's wool, which can be seen on the deceased's headdress. It then lowers to a low angle, while a new graphic theme emerges: that of the trees, whose branches invoke the sky. We breathe. Calming comes from Bois-Maury, which heralds victory and whose chain mail, with its regular rhythm, evokes stability and protection. Hermann offers us a symphony of emotions in a single plate.