Birdman: Jean-Jacques Sempé for Lee Lorenz

Jean-Jacques Sempé's Un léger décalage—in English, A Slight Shift—was published in 1977. The copy he presented that year to New Yorker art editor Lee Lorenz has a unique feature: a drawing of a bird with a man's head. To my eye, this is a caricature of Lorenz, but it is also something more. It is a preview of a New Yorker cover that was not to be published until August of the following year. Most likely the art had already been sold to the magazine when Sempé presented Lorenz with this scaled down, personalized version.

Jean-Jacques Sempé eBay listing accessed September 8, 2023 https://www.ebay.com/itm/125899401965?hash=item1d50306aed:g:UO4AAOSwNyNkRUDA&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4Aw%2FgKSPK0FW3WQVN4s%2FJLMb5Nl5wwG4748OhcTDSdXza2iV88N1%2Bn7qCAxCArC3L2njt2OdFHkt5nyL6QfWqAzh7JrKbDH1s57I3XUQk5ml%2B301i3okS5xedT1vDGQUi%2BnCsCcG4JclJmJYGCuD0gZM0LzQMFxVbWWDhXZCmY4n9DmglgitKwz5wL9C%2Fq7EosWPFzw64Zkz2MOj9ecNTSW1WM76D%2B84RzPrxzUApz%2FrzhU8lK5piLVrpyoei6i8BkwVsbxEr1sjmHF4rVTiVnnUltD5yVsJk2uGxoAie4mj%7Ctkp%3ABFBMiv2o_s5i

https://www.cotemaison.fr/chaine-d/creation/interview-de-sempe-le-dessin-d-humour-est-un-luxe-absolu_9259.html

This New Yorker cover made an appearance in full at Sempé's funeral:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-20/france-pays-homage-to-beloved-new-yorker-cartoonist-semp?embedded-checkout=true

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