The New Yorker Cover - Feb 2, 1998

This cover for the February 2, 1998, issue of The New Yorker is by the celebrated French artist Jean-Jacques Sempé. The illustration shows a lone executive in a vast and luxurious corner office, featuring a panoramic window with a stunning view of the city skyline. The man, dwarfed by his surroundings, holds an empty chair as if presenting the magnificent view to an unseen companion.

Artistic Insight

This artwork is a masterful and poignant commentary on the loneliness of power, a recurring theme in Sempé's work. The immense scale of the office and the sprawling city outside paradoxically serve to highlight the isolation of the individual. He has reached the pinnacle of success, yet he is utterly alone. The central gesture—presenting the view to an empty chair—is the heart of the cover's narrative, a gesture that is at once absurd, humorous, and deeply melancholic. Sempé uses his signature style to gently critique the empty promises of ambition, suggesting that the grandest view in the world has little meaning without someone to share it with.

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