ROCHETTE

JEAN-MARC ROCHETTE LA DERNIÈRE REINE, Casterman 2022 Original plate no. 82 accompanied by preparatory stage in India ink and wash. Signed. India ink and graphite on paper 29.6 × 41.8 cm (11.65 × 16.46 in.) Preparatory stage: 29.5 × 40.3 cm Jeanne and Édouard's first night of love in Paris. Two bodies frolic in the shadows, on a bed that evokes a battlefield. Blurred bodies, close-ups of shapes marrying and hands embracing: the magic of ellipsis, subtle expressions and postures, everything is said in four squares, passion and tenderness... In the last square, day breaks over the Butte Montmartre. How to represent physical love in a chaste way? Show sensuality without falling foul of censorship? As some scenes in the Chinese edition of Transperceneige have been retouched - panties and bras have been added so as not to offend modesty - I now force myself to imagine scenes that are explicit, but difficult to censor. This forced me to work more on evocation, shadows and abstraction, to keep myself at the limit of what the reader can imagine. J.-M.R.