GABRIELLE VINCENT

GABRIELLE VINCENT ERNEST AND CELESTINE Noël chez Ernest et Célestine, Éditions Duculot 1983 Choreography of tenderness, original illustration. Watercolor on paper 23.5 × 20.5 cm (9.25 × 8.07 in.) The moments of complicity and tenderness are legion in Ernest and Célestine, but these are particularly well scripted; we read these images like a comic book without words, or like a flipbook; we imagine the pages turning and creating animation, 6 pages like these 6 images of Célestine evolving around Ernest, who follows her in her movements. Célestine may be tiny, but she takes up an enormous amount of space: she's all you see! In fact, she's in red, while Ernest's suit almost disappears into the white of the page. Ernest annoyed by Célestine is the story of his life. All tenderness and patience. Célestine teases, challenges and annoys Ernest. His seat is part of the staging, and she takes possession of it. He can't take it anymore, but he's all over it, embracing her moods, alternately protective and amused. "For me (but only for me), the pleasure of drawing is the pleasure of "making things move" (running, walking, falling, getting angry), but also, and just as much, expressing inner movements: the intensity of feelings felt by a character. Express them through attitude, gesture, eyes, mouth, eyebrows, shoulders, hands." Letter from Monique Martin to her Japanese publisher, 1994