The Provocative Colette

July 23, 2018
Goetzinger (Girl in Dior) joyously celebrates a life devoted to the arts in this posthumous biographical portrait of Colette. Colette begins this story as a newlywed barely out of her teen years and ends it as one of the most celebrated writers of the 20th century. The bare facts make for a juicy read, and Goetzinger’s elegant watercolors catapult Colette’s life into the realm of myth: the publishing of her wildly popular Claudine novels, her affairs with everyone from a famously debonair marquise to her own stepson, and even the cutting of her long hair become the actions of a legend. Goetzinger’s use of desaturated color creates a misty dreamscape for the heroine to inhabit, and her fine-lined depictions of fashions, fabric, and natural scenes are lavishly on display, especially when showing Colette performing on stage or flashbacks to her childhood in the country. The translation leaves something to be desired—stiff dialogue like Colette greeting her husband with “what are you doing, my sweet honey?” pairs oddly with languid visuals. But Goetzinger’s art shines throughout. This thrilling and tender look at storytelling and romance at the turn of the century proves a fitting finale to a distinguished cartoonist’s career.

September 15, 2018
Goetzinger's biography of Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954), the French writer eventually known as simply Colette, focuses on the years between her marriage, at age 20, to older newspaperman/author Willy and the 1922 publication of her scandalizing novel, The Ripening Seed. The era between these bookends sees Colette's transformation from a book-smart yet naive young woman to an assured, envelope-pushing artist and champion of her own freedoms. Willy's infidelities break young Colette, but he also convinces her to write (by at first taking all credit for her work and talent) and to experiment with female lovers of her own. Carving a niche as the creator of gorgeously illustrated, well-documented historical tales focusing on women's lives, French artist Goetzinger (Girl in Dior, 2015; Marie Antoinette: Phantom Queen, 2016) gives voice to her muse here, incorporating Colette's own words into the narration. Goetzinger's fashion-illustration background again shines in precise, realistic, sensually drawn figures and a lush palette, fitting her Belle Epoque setting, while her page layout keeps all the pace and appeal of traditional comics-reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)