Jean-Jacques Sampé was born in Bordeaux, in 1932. After a brief period at school, various years in the army and an eclectic series of jobs in his native region, he embarked on a career as an illustrator in Paris, subsequently working with various French and foreign publications, among which Paris Match and The New Yorker. Essentially using pencil and watercolour techniques, Sempé portrays the most routine simple daily situations with unmistakable humour and warm gentleness. Features which are likewise present in his most famous creation, Le Petit Nicolas (Little Nicholas), in collaboration with the comic strip writer René Goscinny.
