Claude Ponti

Claude Ponti was born as the middle of three boys, between his older brother Alain, and younger brother Michel.^[1] His father was a “chrono-analyst” (or Time-motion study analyst), and his mother was a teacher. He later recalled his time in kindergarten,^[2] with a teacher trained on the Germaine Tortel [fr] method, where a teacher trained in the Germaine Tortel method encouraged drawing, and additional activities were organized by the teacher’s husband.

At six years old, Claude Ponti was raped by his maternal grandfather, a World War 1 veteran. He disclosed the abuse years later, at the age of 25. His parents refused to believe him and asked him to leave the family home.^[3] At the age of eight, his family moved to the Vosges countryside, where he lived in a rural environment and spent time around farm animals. He is left-handed,^[4] and mildly dyslexic.^[2]

After obtaining his diploma in 1967, Claude Ponti then attended a Fine Arts school in Aix-en-Provence. He later studied literature and archaeology in Strasbourg, before moving to Paris.

From 1968 to 1984, he worked for the French newspaper L’Express, initially as a courier and later as a cartoonist.^[5][6] During this period, he exhibited paintings at a gallery in Paris between 1972 and 1978. He also produced illustrations for children’s literature publishers.^{[clarification needed]} In the early 1980's, he was the artistic director of the Imagerie of Épinal.

The birth of his daughter, Adèle, in 1985, marked the beginning of his career as a children’s author. His earliest works were created for his daughter. In 1986, after Gallimard editor Geneviève Brisac reviewed his work, L’Album d’Adèle was published.^[7] Brisac later became a publisher at L’École des loisirs, where Ponti subsequently published most of his books. Adèle Ponticelli later became a podcast producer for Le Monde and has collaborated with her father on projects, including a fiction podcast produced for ARTE Radio.

Many illustrators, including Claude Ponti in 2000 and 2001, created original artwork for Françoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman's Little Lit children's book anthology.^[8][9] Mouly and Spiegelman's Toon Books have published some of Ponti's work, starting in 2012. That same year, Ponti and Spiegelman, along with Lorenzo Mattotti, drew a six-handed lithographe illustration^[10][11] together, at the Salon du livre.

In 2009, with some friends, Ponti created Le Muz^[12][13] (later renamed La Venture - Le Muz), an online virtual museum and voluntary association, which displays children's works from across the world, as well as aids and announces many real-life events revolving around child art, and projects by Claude Ponti and other artists, educators, psychologists and researchers. Le Muz's mission statement is “To valorise the creativity of children and their works, as well as collect and broadcast them”^[14] and that “Children's works should be visible, preserved, valued, accessible to everyone, children and adults, anytime and anywhere in the world”.^[13] As of 2025, Le Muz has over eighty people listed as having helped contribute to its founding and/or continued development,^[15] and its site hosts nearly 5000 artworks by children.

While known more for children's books, Claude Ponti has also written for adult audiences.^[16][17] His first adult-readers novel, Les Pieds-Bleus, is about a rural boy named Hercule, in the 1960's, who is harassed, physically and sexually abused, but nonetheless enjoys playing, running wild, and being full of imagination.^[18]

In a 2014 article for Libération, Ponti criticised^[19] Jean-François Copé, then-president of the center-right UMP political party, for Copé's remarks against Claire Franek's children's book Tous à Poil! (English translation: All Naked!), on nakedness and human bodies. Copé said that reading it made his blood stop flowing, that UMP leaders had to say “enough!”, and wrongfully-claimed the book was part of official recommended teaching aids for primary education teachers.^[20] Ponti said “Criticising a children's book without understanding it is dumb”, and added that this insulted the adult family members and librarians who read and understood the books, and who chose to give them to children in their family or library.

The Institut Français' November 2015 South Ken Kids Festival, in London, hosted a drawing panel with both Claude Ponti and Tony Ross,^[21] around the topic of Alice in Wonderland during the book's 150th anniversary.^[22]

Ponti illustrated the inside of the 2022 album Consolation for singer Pomme, who had been a huge fan of Ponti from her childhood, and whose mushroom hat, worn for the album's cover, references the author's work.^[23]

A couple of Claude Ponti's earliest children's books, are credited as written by Mona Ponti (or Monique Ponticelli), and illustrated by Claude.

Claude Ponti creates stories which are articulated like dreams, often with a touch of humour.

He frequently invents new words, inspired by kids (bad pronunciation, or their imaginations). He also plays with the language, by use of subtle and poetic puns. Hence, the content is both for kids and adults, especially in his last few works.

Puns contribute to the writing dynamic, and characters are created through associating ideas. The whole book, story and images, is a base to imagine and create new psychological interpretations. Besides, a lot of books tells the adventure of characters who live initiatory journeys.

Ponti says the following on his own books :

“ My stories are like tales, always in the fantasy, they talk about the ' inside life ' and childhood feelings, so each child can put what he wants into the images : dreams and characters of his own. ”

In Ponti's albums, text is tied to images. The gorgeous illustrations are full-blown elements, symbolic and independent. The attentive reader can discover details, easter eggs, hidden messages, or facts not mentioned in the text.

As for technique, tools and materials, Ponti switches between a mixture of watercolor, gouache and China ink, occasionally using photocopying, collages or a light table, for scenery and elements frequently reused throughout a book, or for changing the size of an element.^[24]

Claude Ponti is notably inspired by Lewis Carroll's wacky universe, and introduces references to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass in his own books.

Furthermore, children's imagination inspired him, their ideas, their wishes, to create appreciated books :

“ When my daughter had a dream or a nightmare, the next day, I asked her to tell me about it, I was taking notes then I went to my office, and I worked. ”