147 - Ferrandez

Ferrandez JACQUES FERRANDEZ CARNETS D'ORIENT Complete Collection. First Cycle, Casterman 2008 Front and back covers in original semi-direct color accompanied by the initial sketch in India ink. Signed. India ink and watercolor on paper 63.7 × 27.7 cm (25.08 × 10.91 in.) First draft: 65 × 37.1 cm This drawing is the cover of the complete collection of *Carnets d’Orient*, a compilation of the first five volumes covering the French conquest of Algeria up to the eve of the War of Independence, which constitute Jacques Ferrandez’s magnum opus. Born in Algiers in 1955 to a family of Spanish origin, Ferrandez was only three months old when he left “White Algiers.” His luminous watercolor draws on the tradition of the Orientalist painters of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He uses this style to tell a story that is both historical and personal, imbued with nostalgia: that of a vanished past, reconstructed through memories, archives, and images, where beauty never masks the violence of history. For the first edition of the complete *Carnets d’Orient* collection, which brought together the first five albums in the series, I designed a panoramic cover that included the back cover and both flaps. This design echoed the famous “Studio” collection (À suivre) from Casterman, which had published the first three volumes of the series in this format between 1987 and 1992, before switching to the classic hardcover format for the rest of the series. In this illustration, composed like a frieze, we see the main characters from the five albums spanning the 1830s through the 1950s. Jacques Ferrandez