N°6: Sophie Duf
“The Illustrator”
Sophie with her vivid intellectual mind, charismatic personality à la Françoise Sagan and striking Parisian elegance is our sixth portrait. An illustrator and Creative Artist by trade and an exceptional cook and gardener by nature, Sophie approaches all her projects with the same appetite and inexhaustible creativity with a constant search for perfection.
What is your most outstanding character trait?
Relentlessness
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
A happiness greater than the previous one
A graduate of Science Po in 1985, Sophie spends several years working for numerous politicians, as a ghostwriter as well as working in financial institutions, but develops very quickly a curiosity for different artistic currents.
In 2009, although never having attended any artistic school, Sophie launched herself into the world of drawing as an autodidact, just like the famous illustrators Sempé and Pierre Le-Tan before her.
Sophie rapidly becomes a master of the « line » . With a certain economy of traits she achieves a particular balance made up of unexpected tensions and foreseen coincidences. An invented equilibrium with a delicate, poetic pencil stroke full of humor, fantasy and finesse. The « Duf » style is born !
From screen printing for a collection of clothes and shoes to the production of children’s books, through editions of wallpaper and furniture fabric and many other unique objects, it is by browsing through Sophie’s designs that one realizes the multiplicity and diversity of her work.
A collector at heart, Sophie has been watching over the foundation of the painter Charles-Henri Monvert with whom she lived in her youth for several years. Master of geometric abstraction, the artist who died in 2018, has just entered the collections of the MNAM-Centre Pompidou.
What is the most extravagant thing you have ever done?
Do Paris-Nice, via the Napoleon road, at the wheel of my Triumph TR6
Which talent would you most like to have?
A beautiful mezzo voice
Which living person do you most admire?
People are versatile, it is better to wait until they die before admiring them
Who are your favorite heroes/heroines in fiction?
Ulysse
Who are your favorite writers?
Musil, Flaubert, Tolstoi
What do you consider is your greatest achievements?
The next one
In which imaginary country would you like to live?
None, reality always outweighs fiction for both good and bad
What do you regret the most?
Having sold my Triumph TR6 after an accident
Which flower would you like to be?
An Angelic
Who are your favorite artists?
The ones I collect
Which bird would you like to be?
An Avocet
What is your greatest fear?
To fly
What is your most treasured possession?
Unfortunately my glasses
What is your favorite occupation?
To draw, preferably in my studio in Villiers sous Grez
What would you change about yourself if you could?
Impatience
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
A painting in Venice: Giorgione’s The Tempest
What is your current state of mind?
Hibernation
What is your favourite motto?
If you don’t have time, take it!
Credits: Sophie Duf, website, Instagram.
Photo credits: Jonas Ingerstedt.