PLESSIX - Lot 30

PLESSIX MICHEL PLESSIX THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS L'Échappée belle (T.3), Delcourt 1999 Original cover. Signed. Watercolor, Indian ink and pastel highlights on paper 32.3 × 50 cm (12.72 × 19.69 in.) While Rat and Mole enjoy some well-deserved peace and quiet, Toad languishes in a grim prison (there's hardly a happy one). For his mad love of cars and a few misdemeanors, the unfortunate fellow has been sentenced to twenty years in prison... And as Taupe would say: "Twenty years is a long time, especially for a batrachian! But our animal has more than one trick up his sleeve. Thanks to his irresistible charm, his exceptional intelligence and, above all, his immense generosity, Crapaud escapes and embarks on a high-risk escapade. But to conquer freedom, he has to sacrifice - and how! - his most precious possession: his dignity. To illustrate this third cover of Le Vent dans les Saules, Michel Plessix reinterprets the escape scene, not resisting to show Crapaud, disguised as a washerwoman and wearing a feathered hat, cautiously descending a spiral staircase in an attempt to go unnoticed... quite a feat when you know his character! Three or four steps down, a menacing shadow comes into view. A guard with a halberd? A statue? We'll never know. The author enhances the overall effect with a lovely midnight blue.