Gotlib. A quoi ça sert que la mère Ducros elle se décarcasse ? [1983]. China ink on strong paper. Signed in black marker lower right. References in pencil top right:« gotlib IL53 ». Size: 15.2 x 14.1 cm. Framed.
Original drawing in the spirit of Fluide glacial showing Isabelle Adjani as she appeared in L’Eté meurtrier, in scantily clad, wearing a chef’s hat, shedding tears of despair at the futility of her efforts to spice up life or seduce others: « Bonne mère !… A quoi ça sert que la Mère Ducros elle se décarcasse ? A quoi bon… Tout cela est si vain… A quoi ça sert ? Snif. J’en peux plus. Je suis dans un état proche du décarcassement » [Good mother! What’s the point of Mother Ducros going to all this trouble? What’s the point… It’s all so futile… What’s the point? Sniff. I can’t take it any more. I’m in a state close to exhaustion.]. In the bottom right-hand corner, the cartoonist’s recurring character, eating strong mustard, crimson, spitting out his molars, no doubt very sensitive to the star’s charm.
There are still a few traces of the preparatory pencil drawing, an unusual technique for the artist. Indeed, for his plates, his pencil sketches were made in a sketchbook, then copied in ink onto the plate.
Marcel Gottlieb, known as Gotlib (1934-2016), was a French comic strip artist, writer, cartoonist and publisher, famous for his hero Gai-Luron, the humour series Les Dingodossiers (produced with René Goscinny) and Rubrique-à-brac, the adventures of Superdupont and the many pages he published in two major monthly magazines he co-founded in the 1970s: L’Écho des savanes and Fluide glacial.
At the time of our drawing, in the 1980s, he was devoting himself almost exclusively to writing for Fluide Glacial, drawing more and more rarely (his last comic book, La Bataille navale or Gai-Luron en slip, was published in 1986).
L’Été meurtrier, a drama film by Jean Becker, released in 1983. It starred Isabelle Adjani and Alain Souchon. Adjani, a flamboyant and venomous seductress, won the César for Best Actress. Presented in competition at the Cannes Film Festival on 10 May 1983, the ascent of the steps was marked by a highly symbolic strike by photographers, who put their cameras down without taking any shots.
Is our drawing an allusion to this? What’s more, ‘la mère Ducros’ is a reference to the famous advertising slogan ‘À quoi ça sert que Ducros il se décarcasse!’ used since 1975 for Ducros herbs and spices, and smells of Provence, where the film is set; and ‘Je suis dans un état proche du décarcassement’ hijacks the famous refrain ‘J’suis dans un état proche de l’Ohio’ from his 1983 hit Ohio, co-written with Serge Gainsbourg.
Gotlib in all his satirical verve, served up by exceptional graphic quality.
2 800 €