Pratt

HUGO PRATT CORTO MALTESE Fable de Venise (T.7), Casterman 1981 Original strip n°1 of plate n° 44, prepublished in (À Suivre) n° 15 of April 1979 India ink and felt pen on paper. Watercolour indications on the back 48 × 16.1 cm (18.9 × 6.34 in.) Fable de Venise is undoubtedly one of Hugo Pratt's most personal albums. It recalls his youth in Venice, when Mussolini's Fascist enterprise was beginning to take hold (the story takes place over a period of 15 days, from 10 to 15 April 1921, just before the Duce took power). Pratt's father was a member of the fascist militia and personally participated in the looting of the Masonic lodge in Venice, while the artist's mother was of Jewish origin, as Corto Maltese would later learn. The result is an album that speaks of a world that has disappeared, sunk in the ether of his memories. Hence this sequence with its broad strokes, vaporous atmospheres and gigantic shadows that contribute to this dreamlike atmosphere. A great Pratt.