jean-claude
Götting
Harry Potter à l’École des Sorciers
Published for the first time in October 1998 by Gallimard Jeunesse, Harry Potter à L’École des Sorciers sported this illustration of Harry, Ron, Hermione (and Hedwig!) by Jean-Claude Götting. He says:
When I was asked to illustrate the cover of the first Harry Potter book, I must say I had not realised there would be a sequel. It seemed to me the best thing to portray was the three friends. I wanted Harry’s face to have something a bit special. Not handsome, but somewhat dreamy.
Quite simply because I was already illustrating book covers for Gallimard. One day, the publisher sent me the first volume of Harry Potter and asked me if I would agree to draw the cover. I read the manuscript and was immediately hooked by the novel, so I accepted.
It was in the fall of 1998 that Gallimard Jeunesse published Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in France , the first volume of what would become one of the greatest literary successes in history. As in every country, the French publisher designed its own cover.
Yes, I was given a typewritten manuscript. I was told: “Read it and tell us if you can do a cover.” I didn’t even know there would be a sequel!
The chosen illustration constitutes the first visual contact between the famous wizard and his fans: the young boy, wearing a pointed hat and a long black robe, gives them a smile. He is surrounded by Ron and Hermione, his eternal sidekicks, while behind them the outlines of the castle housing Hogwarts, the school that provides their magic lessons.
“It was acrylic on paper,” recalls Jean-Claude Götting, the author of this drawing anchored in the imagination of an entire generation, for BFMTV.com. “I had made it on a relatively small format, on an A4 sheet.”
At the time, the cartoonist was approaching 35 years old and had been working in the world of comics and children’s illustration for about fifteen years. He was recognized by the prestigious Angoulême festival and had already worked several times with Gallimard.
So, when a manuscript called Harry Potter about an orphan with magical powers arrives in the publisher’s offices, it is without asking too many questions that the house turns again to the designer: “It was offered to me, I was asked if I was interested... and that’s it”, he jokes.
There was no competition, there was no particular issue. The book was published in paperback in the Folio Junior collection, like any other children’s book.
For Jean-Claude Götting, the singularity of the work “was immediately apparent”: “I had read quite a few children’s books, and this one was clearly on another level. An intelligent text, a strong plot... I felt right away that it was different.” So, the illustrator created this first illustration... without realizing that he had just signed for ten years:
“I didn’t even know it was supposed to be a series!” he says. “I took the first one as if it were a single title, I didn’t understand that it was a sequel.”
First of all, I must say that I did not know, when the first volume came out of the printers, that a sequel was planned. However, as the publications were published, my enthusiasm for each novel did not wane. Being able to walk with these characters who grow as each title is published is a real pleasure. And my drawing has therefore followed their evolution, their growth, and evolved with them. It remains in fact for me an exceptional adventure.
Harry Potter et la Chambre des Secrets
This “no pressure” pace accelerated as success grew. For the first two novels, Götting was free to depict what he illustrated. When the third, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (October 1999), arrived, JK Rowling made her first and last request: the covers had to feature a hippogriff, a fantastical creature crucial to the plot’s outcome. This is probably why, all over the world, the first editions of the third Harry Potter book all had similar covers.
Harry Potter et le Prisonnier d’Azkaban
This “no pressure” pace accelerated as success grew. For the first two novels, Götting was free to depict what he illustrated. When the third, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (October 1999), arrived, JK Rowling made her first and last request: the covers had to feature a hippogriff, a fantastical creature crucial to the plot’s outcome. This is probably why, all over the world, the first editions of the third Harry Potter book all had similar covers.
Harry Potter et la Coupe de Feu
A new challenge arose with the fourth part, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire , published in France on November 29, 2000: if he wanted to know the plot before starting the illustration, Jean-Claude Götting would have to read in the language of Shakespeare. “For the first three, I had access to the text in French before anyone else.”
“From ‘The Goblet of Fire’ onwards, the English agent completely blocked the manuscripts, and the translator himself only had access to them when the books came out in English,” he continues.
“I speak English reasonably well, but reading 800 pages... that’s something else!”
“We reached a stage where there were validations at all levels, including that of the English agent,” recalls the illustrator.
“For the first three, I arrived with covers already finished; from the fourth, I presented several proposals of what I had imagined and we reached an agreement with the publisher.”
At the beginning, it was a book for children. So I had taken a rather childish visual option. Then, the English realized that the book appealed to adults but that they had trouble walking around with a book intended for children! In Paris too, we wondered if we had to adapt to this dual readership. So we created the large formats and the image became more adult.
Obviously, films influence the imagination. We wondered if we should get closer to the profile of the character played by Daniel Radcliffe. From volume IV (“The Goblet of Fire”, editor’s note), the phenomenon took on real proportions. Many more people had their say on the visuals... We wondered if Warner, who held the rights, was not going to impose the covers. There was a moment of hesitation. I was told to get closer to the American version.
Harry Potter et l’Ordre du Phénix
There are two cover proposals. The one that is retained is rather in gray blues, green. The other in red ochres and blue.
Did Gallimard or Warner Bros. impose a theme for the cover, as was discussed at the time of the so-called standardization of the character by Warner? No. We were afraid for a moment when we saw the English edition that we would not be allowed to draw HP. Then we were reassured when we saw the American edition which, moreover, contains small interior illustrations with the characters.
I worked for about 2 weeks. This includes research, sketching, and execution.
With, each time, the imperative of making the hero age by one year, since each volume follows him in a new year of studies at the school of wizards.
Contrary to what happens in the books, there is little action in Jean-Claude Götting’s covers,” analyzes Hedwige Pasquet.
“He portrayed a Harry Potter with a lot of inner reflection, an amazing personality, and something enigmatic.” An “enigmatic” Harry
Paradoxically, the images conveyed by Warner were not imposed on the books. Each country was able to continue with its own illustrators. But I let myself be influenced and my drawing naturally came closer to the film character. Take, for example, the clothing. Harry Potter lives most of the time in an English college, so the tie imposed itself in my illustration, as in the cinema.
Harry Potter et le Prince de Sang-Mêlé
He set to work, however, to ever-tighter deadlines: nearly five months passed between the English and French versions of volume 4, only three between those of volume 7. “Everything was moving very quickly, we needed an image for all the communication,” he recalls. The race reached its climax with the sixth volume, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005), which he illustrated before being able to read a single word of it:
“They told me: ‘Look at the English and American covers and try to do something with them, apparently Dumbledore is going to be important’. When we got the book, they said: ‘Dumbledore has a burnt hand, we need to fix it!’”
Good question! (Laughs.) For the 6th book, “The Half-Blood Prince,” the only information the publisher could give me was that it heavily featured Dumbledore. That’s it! I had to draw it randomly. I was unable to work normally. Everything was locked down, it was crazy. The English version of the book came out just as I was finishing my drawing. Everyone read it overnight to see if the drawing was suitable...
And we noticed that Dumbledore had a burned hand at the beginning of the story! At the last minute, I changed this hand.
Harry Potter et les Reliques de la Mort
In 2007, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released , the final installment of the young wizard’s adventures. Jean-Claude Götting took up his brush one last time to depict a teenage Harry, alone on the edge of a cliff, contemplating the sea: “This is the one I had the most fun with. Of all the covers around the world, this is the only one that is a bit calm. The others depict fight scenes.”
For “The Deathly Hallows”, I had proposed two covers. One of the two represented a scene in which Harry had to dive into a frozen pond. The fact that he is in his underwear on the cover slowed down the publisher a little. But I liked this scene! Finally, we chose the moment where he is thinking, his eyes fixed on the horizon, with the storm in the distance.
About Harry
Certainly, the covers of Harry Potter have marked his career. But he does not want them to be “his main label”: “It is a special job because of this success. We are talking about millions of copies sold in France alone, I think that only happens once in a lifetime.”
“But in the end, it only represents about ten drawings in all; on the scale of a career, it’s not much. ‘Harry Potter’ is not my feat of arms.”
He even wonders if, for a while, these covers didn’t do him a bit of a disservice: “I think I was less often called upon for a while, I was too much of a symbol. People were afraid it would remind people of Harry Potter.”
25 Years of Magic
In a nostalgic tribute, Gallimard Jeunesse enlisted the work of Jean Claude Götting, the first illustrator of the French-language Harry Potter books. The artist created a new illustration for the box set, featuring central characters from J.K. Rowling’s universe, including some that had never been depicted before. The set includes members of the second Order of the Phoenix, such as Nymphadora Tonks, Remus Lupin, Molly and Arthur Weasley, Sirius Black, and Alastor Moody, as well as Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters, the Malfoy family, Bellatrix Lestrange, and Severus Snape. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luna Lovegood, Horace Slughorn, Katie Bell, and Dobby are also visible on the back of the box set.
However, as Götting noted on his Instagram account, there were some unfortunate color errors in the house ties of some characters, such as Cho Chang who wore a Gryffindor tie instead of the colors of her respective house, Ravenclaw. Götting also made some intentional changes from his early 2000s drawings, such as representing Severus Snape with a beard.
To celebrate the occasion, the seven Harry Potter books have been reissued with their original covers, with a few notable differences. The first three volumes feature the covers redrawn by the artist for the large format editions, rather than the original pocket-sized 23 www.therowlinglibrary.com Folio Junior covers. Each book features various symbols related to the volume in question, such as the Basilisk for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
The seven volumes are published by Folio Junior (Gallimard’s pocket-sized collection) and feature the legendary colored stripe on the spine and the cover, a graphic feature that had since disappeared from previous reissues of the series. Another detail that has been preserved is the original white typography, which was quickly changed by Mary GrandPré’s design after a decision by Warner Bros.
Because the Götting covers are only coming back for a while. After the 25,000 collector’s boxes have been sold, they will disappear again. “I’m delighted to see them again, they have left their mark on many people”, rejoices their author. Even if he admits to having needed a reminder spell for the new illustration that adorns the box: “I had forgotten all the characters, I have no precise memory. I needed a list of the protagonists and their characteristics...”
This limited edition box set, produced in a numbered run of 25,000 copies, also comes with an exclusive set of eight postcard covers featuring each volume and the box set fresco. The luckiest among them can find one of five “gold tickets” offering a family visit to the Harry Potter Studios in the United Kingdom.
Original drawing of the Harry Potter 25th anniversary collector’s box set up for auction in Brussels. As part of its prestigious sale on June 17, Huberty & Breyne Auction is selling the original drawing from the Harry Potter 25th anniversary collector’s box set by Jean-Claude Götting. Other big names in Franco-Belgian comics are in the spotlight.
On this occasion, the drawing of the collector’s box set 25 years of Harry Potter signed Jean-Claude Götting is put up for sale. The work, an acrylic on paper, is estimated between 10,000 euros and 15,0000 euros.