MIRALLES Lot n° 28

ANA MIRALLES DJINN Dargaud A libertine tattoo, original illustration realized in 2021, published in Ana by Daniel Maghen in 2022. Signed. Watercolor and pencil on paper 63.4 × 48 cm (24.96 × 18.9 in.) In this watercolor, extrapolated from volume 3 of Djinn, Jade has ordered a slave to calligraphy on her skin the name of her English lover, Lord Harold Nelson. From erotic, the illustration immediately becomes libertine. Beyond the turbans, the hangings, the precious mules waiting for the small feet, the ceramics and the orientalist glassware, the work evokes the French eighteenth century. For the scene mimics that passage in Dangerous Liaisons where Valmont, having taken the naked body of his mistress Emily as his desk, writes an ambiguous declaration of love to the prudish Madame de Tourvel. With Laclos, words have a double meaning. With Djinn, they go deep into the flesh. The name of her lover will sink literally into Jade's loins, leaving only an unalterable burn. There is nothing more lasting than a fading tattoo. "I had this illustration in mind for a long time," says Ana Miralles. "I wanted to describe what exists in the space between two comic book panels. And to paint Jade's life in the harem, in her opulence and her daily life."