Jean-Marc Rochette

As a comic artist, painter, scriptwriter, sculptor and writer, Jean-Marc Rochette has spent the last 40 years exploring various genres and mediums, developing a form of art that is untamed, powerful, demanding, sincere and raw. Renowned for the Transperceneige - Snowpiercer series—a major science fiction comic strip created with Jacques Lob in the 1980s, which he continued with Extinctions and Terminus—and for his globally acclaimed graphic novels set in the mountains—La Dernière Reine, Le Loup, Ailefroide—Jean-Marc Rochette is today at the pinnacle of his art. His talent is evident as much in his pages with powerful inking as in his delicate mountain watercolors, his abstract paintings and his animal sculptures.

The success of the 2023 auction dedicated to Jean-Marc Rochette by Daniel Maghen Enchères confirms the artist’s standing in the market for original comic art, both for his historical series Transperceneige – Snowpiercer and for his new Alpine tales La Dernière Reine, Le Loup and Ailefroide. The top sales in the catalog went to the cover of the La Dernière Reine album (2022), estimated at €8,000, and an unpublished illustration titled Le Vercors (2023), estimated at €5,000, both of which sold for €15,000 (including tax) each. The record for this artist goes to page 1 of the first volume of Transperceneige – Snowpiercer, which sold for €17,500 (including tax) at auction.

To preserve your works on paper, we recommend that you never expose them to direct light, as UV rays can damage the mediums used. Paintings made with pastel or charcoal require special care to avoid rubbing. Works containing watercolor are particularly sensitive to light, unlike gouache and acrylic.
We advise you to display them away from windows, and to use frames made from pH-neutral conservation materials and “Museum” glass with anti-UV and anti-reflective treatment. If you prefer to keep your works unframed, we recommend storing them flat, in drawing cartons, with sheets of pH-neutral permanent paper in between. Keep them away from light and humidity.

An author, illustrator, painter and visual artist, Jean-Marc Rochette (born in 1956) started his career in comic art over forty years ago. After an accident put an end to his plans to become a mountain guide, he turned to comic art and published, notably, Le Transperceneige (Snowpiercer), a major science-fiction work of the 1980s that was serialized in the prestigious monthly magazine (À suivre). After seven years in Berlin, where he devoted himself exclusively to abstract painting, he returned to the Écrins massif, which inspired his new Alpine stories. With albums such as Ailefroide, Le Loup, and La Dernière Reine, he achieved widespread success by exploring themes such as mountains and the connection between humans and nature. At the same time, he continued working on Le Transperceneige, published art books, and currently devotes himself more to writing and to his work as a visual artist. He lives between Grenoble and the Écrins.