This version is the closest to the final published version.
Accompanied by the first edition in book form, with its dust jacket. It differs considerably from the illustrator’s first proposed version, though the latter was quite successful in its own right.
This copy comes from the personal archives of the illustrator, Jean Jacquelin, with the estate stamp.
Jean Jacquelin worked on 27 of Simenon’s novels for Presses de la Cité between 1957 and 1962. He made an early attempt as far back as 1946, when he designed a dust jacket for the first reissue of Trois chambres à Manhattan. But it was not until ten years later that Sven Nielsen, head of Presses de la Cité, entrusted him with the new illustrations, at a time when cover design was taking a new direction, moving away from photographic covers toward illustrated ones.
By this date, Jacquelin was already an established poster artist. Art director of the Step agency from 1929, he produced numerous film posters from 1940 onward while continuing his work as a commercial illustrator across many sectors: automobiles (Peugeot, Delage, Simca, Buick, Fiat), energy (Antar, Esso, Shell), the press (Paris-Soir, L’Intransigeant, Éditions Froissart, Presses de la Cité), fashion (Scandale, Magasin Le Printemps), tourism and travel (SNCF, Air France, Aéropostale, Compagnie Transatlantique…), and numerous brands and events (Crédit Foncier, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Coop, Vittel, Casino d’Enghien, Brandt, Champagne Mercier, Semaine du cinéma, the châteaux of the Loire…).
His two most famous posters are undoubtedly those for Jacques Tati’s Jour de fête and Jacques Becker’s Casque d’or, starring Simone Signoret and Serge Reggiani. A major exhibition was devoted to him in 1993 at the Bibliothèque Forney, accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue (Jean Jacquelin affichiste et dessinateur publicitaire; Exposition Bibliothèque Forney, April 29–May 28, 1993).
His work for Presses de la Cité was carried out in collaboration with Georges Simenon, to whom Jacquelin submitted his original designs: the author would give — or withhold — his approval, sometimes suggesting directions. Several of the designs are annotated on the verso by Simenon.
For Le Fils, three designs were first submitted to Simenon. The final illustration is close to the last of these, to which Jacquelin later added brighter colors that would be reused afterward. This jacket was the first of a series of 26 that followed, up to 1962, for first editions or reissues of previously published titles.
• Les Autres (1962, first-edition cover);
• Betty (1961, first-edition cover);
• Les Complices (1960, reissue cover);
• Dimanche (1958, first-edition cover);
• En cas de malheur (1958, reissue cover);
• L’Escalier de fer (1953, reissue cover);
• Les Fantômes du chapelier (1961, reissue cover);
• Feux rouges (1961, first-edition cover);
• Le Fils (1957, first-edition cover);
• Je me souviens (1961, reissue cover);
• Lettre à mon juge (1960, reissue cover);
• La Mort de Belle (1960, reissue cover);
• Le Nègre (1957, first-edition cover);
• La Neige était sale (1959, reissue cover);
• L’Ours en peluche (1960, first-edition cover);
• Le Passage de la ligne (1958, first-edition cover);
• La Porte (1962, first-edition cover);
• Le Président (1958, first-edition cover);
• Strip-tease (1958, first-edition cover);
• Les Témoins (1959, reissue cover);
• Le Temps d’Anaïs (1960, reissue cover);
• Le Train (1961, first-edition cover);
• Trois chambres à Manhattan (1946, reissue cover);
• Une vie comme neuve (1960, reissue cover);
• Le Veuf (1959, first-edition cover);
• La Vieille (1959, first-edition cover);
• Les Volets verts (1959, reissue cover).