Gregoire Solotareff was born in 1953 in Alexandria, Egypt. His father was a doctor from Lebanon and his mother Olga Lecaye, born Solotareff, a painter and illustrator of Russian origins. In 1956, they leave Egypt to live in Lebanon and then in France. Gregoire decides to follow his father's path and study medicine that he will end up practicing for 10 years. In 1985, thank to his son and the encounter with Alain de Saux, he discovers his real vocation, which is writing and painting.
From that time on, he starts working on his illustration style. He publishes the serie of the adventures of Theo & Balthazar, as an hommage to Jean Brunoff, author of Babar (1985-1988).
His books treat of complex problematic, like growing up, self esteem, contradictor desires: Ne m'appelez plus jamais mon petit lapin (1987) ; Le Petit Chaperon vert (1989) ; Un jour, un loup (1994)… The characteristics of his illustrations are pure colors, sometimes applied with a brush, always underlined by a large black line.
In some of his books, he enjoys transforming characters such as ogres into characters funny and nice "Monsieur l'Orgre" published in 1987. His wants to imagine a world comforting to children.
Gregoire Solotareff has produced 128 books in 15 years and has been translated internationally. His first success was " Ne m'appelez plus jamais mon petit Lapin." Some of his most famous works are Le Petit Chaperon vert and Loulou.
Furthermore, Grégoire Solotareff works for the publishing house l'Ecole des Loisirs and directs the Loulou & cie serie for children aged 0 to 3. Solotareff is also a film director and has produced several little jewels of movies with T' es où grand-mère, Loulou, Pour faire le portrait d'un loup and U.
He also has continuously worked in collaboration with his mother, Olga Lecaye (Kouma le terrible, Je suis perdu , Pas de souci, Jérémie), and his sister known as Nadja (Mitch, Le Voleur de jouets) who also have published works on their own.
Gregoire Solotareff is a favorite of La Petite Bete and his books (and posters) will continuously be featured on this website. So come back often to see what new little works of art he is coming up with.
