L’Ostrogoth

A fine original plate (58) used for the album L’Ostrogoth, a graphic biography devoted to the life of Georges Simenon, published in three installments by Dargaud in 2023 (February, May and September).

The script was conceived jointly by José-Louis Bocquet, Jean-Luc Fromental and John Simenon, the writer’s son, who wished to see his father’s life told for the first time in comic-book form.

Loustal, with his instantly recognizable line, cultivates a distinctive atmosphere in which light and shadow sculpt faces and places. In L’Ostrogoth, he transposes Simenon’s world with restraint and accuracy: harbors, cafés, hotel rooms, faces marked by passion or melancholy — an entire world close to the novels comes into view. Heir to a softened ligne claire, the artwork, remarkably faithful to the spirit of Simenon, is not mere illustration: it constitutes a genuine drawn biography, in which the figure of the novelist, his obsessions, his personal dramas and the legend he built around himself find a new visual embodiment. Loustal, known for intimate narratives and meditative atmospheres, provides here a visual counterpoint to the narrative power of the writers.

Fine condition.

Provenance: Galerie Philippe Labaune, New York, Loustal exhibition, 2024.