Portrait vase by Philippe Petit-Roulet

Philippe Petit-Roulet

Born 1953 in Paris. Works as Comic Artist and Illustrator.

Everybody is familiar with his loveable pin men, but hardly anything personal is known about him. It is not only since his line-drawing campaign for the Twingo that Petit-Roulet has been a star and thus not open to too personal questioning. His cheerful figures always convey a little irony and sometimes they appear almost melancholic – "in a sentimental mood" is a state that is probably not unfamiliar to the artist with the sad eyes. Even such commercial work as for the French state railway or the Osaka Automobile Show with its childlike cheerfulness conveys a feeling of strangeness – as if his pin men felt a little lonely in the modern world. He doesn't restrict this ambiguity to major advertising campaigns for such simple products as pepper sauce or hearing aids only, but also uses it in sophisticated publications such as the renowned 'New Yorker' – the Mount Olympus of illustration. A rocketing career for a former comic artist, who started at the beginning of the seventies with little strips in an underground magazine, but whose comics, i.e. 'Metal-Hurlant' or 'Pilote', are counted among the world literature of the genre. With his Milk motif, he wants to honour the unknown milkman, the milkman "who is out and about early in the mornings on his funny three-wheel moped, when the city still looks fresh and innocent – like a glass of milk!"