Franquin - Lot 194

Franquin ANDRÉ FRANQUIN Original illustration for a poster for an event organized by the students Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). The text is printed. Signed. India ink on paper 36.5 × 51 cm (14.37 × 20.08 in.) A magnificent poster designed by Franquin for first-year students ("première candidature") at the Université Libre de Bruxelles law school. This explains the somewhat rudimentary mock-up, intended for the school's reprographics department. Free examination" is the mantra of the faculty, which was created in opposition to the Catholic University of Louvain. It advocates the values of secularism and democracy, values to which Franquin adhered. This drawing of Lagaffe and "Mamzelle Jeanne" is quite brilliant: it shows the goofball as a rocker equipped with a guitar with a rather original neck, typical of Franquin's abstract forms of the 1970s, heralding the Idées noires. We also discover one of his famous signature-gags, who fears in advance the sound Gaston will make with his electric guitar. Jeanne's drawing is also very well done. The strokes are fine and virtuoso. In this portrait of a woman, we find something of the cheerful attitude and benevolent temperament of Liliane, the artist's wife.