Tintin shows up at the station(s)!

Illustration parue pour une publicité des grands magasins A l'Innovation dans Le Soir (27 octobre 1932)

There was a big party in Brussels on Wednesday 14 January 2009 held at the fully renovated Brussels-Luxembourg train station. A symbolic place right in the centre of the European quarter, the station has for a long time been the point from which scouts leave for their holidays in the Ardennes. Many important people have arrived here, including Saint Nicholas.



A proper party for children


The image exhibited at the Brussels-Luxembourg train station dates from 1932. It was an advertisement promoting the arrival of Saint Nicholas, who had been invited by A l'Innovation, a major department store in Brussels, to open a new floor dedicated to toys. This advert appeared in the daily newspaper Le Soir on 27 October. In 1932 all the major Belgian shops made a point of decorating their windows with toys and moving dolls. The children's party held on 6 December would have been unforgettable! The arrival of Saint Nicholas as depicted by Hergé draws on this joyful spirit of fun and happiness. This is the reason why the artist chose to include his characters Quick and Flupke, the notorious Brussels street urchins, on the occasion.



Quick and Flupke live it up!


Of course there weren't any Brussels street urchins in sight on Wednesday 14 January at the Brussels-Luxembourg train station. VIPs such as ministers, executives from SNCB Holding (the Belgian railway company) and representatives of Moulinsart S.A. wouldn't have missed this event for the world. Here are a few souvenirs of that day.



They all came to see Hergé
Charles Dierick details the contents of the fresco (Left) - Nick Rodwell (Right)
Brussels is a small world


Certain Brussels personalities are featured in the drawing of 1932, including the Mayor of Brussels, Vandemeulebroecke, a colleague of Hergé's at Vingtième Siècle, and two city councillors, one of whom was responsible for religious affairs, and bows deeply before Saint Nicholas. This man would have been livid to see this scene of devotion. In reality he was a freemason and fiercely anti-religious! Is Hergé satirising a world of people too full of themselves? In fact, the creator of Tintin was simply sending up what he knew best: the small world of Brussels. His collaborators and friends fondly remember his natural ability to impersonate colourful personalities from his birthplace.



Hergé as an illustrator


The huge success of Tintin somewhat eclipsed the other facets of Hergé's talents in the eyes of the public. When he started out, the job of professional comic strip illustrator didn't really exist. It wasn't therefore a serious career move at the beginning. One of the least known areas of Hergé's work, are his drawings for advertisements. In 1931 he had even managed to set up his first studio, L'Atelier Hergé, within the offices of the daily newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle. The fresco, now a permanent feature at the entrance to the Brussels-Luxembourg train station, belongs to this rich heritage of drawings, leaflets, posters and adverts proclaiming the merits of products and businesses as varied as "Van Eynde Furniture" and the "Potash Salts Trading Syndicate". The improbable name of this last business is enough to demonstrate the range of Hergé's imagination in coming up with ways of marketing its priceless qualities!



Next stop: Namur and the Hergé Museum!


As chief editor of the Petit ?"Vingtième", Hergé was required to create the drawing on the front of the weekly supplement. The illustration on this page shows a realistic drawing by Hergé with a gallant knight in full charge, which was the cover of the edition published on 19 March 1931. The keen interest Hergé felt for advertising and illustration can be seen when looking at the covers of the Tintin books, some of which are more striking than others. He was also of course inclined to paint a glowing picture of scout life, which brings us back to the Brussels-Luxembourg train station, departure point to summer camps for generations of scouts. The fresco at this station joins the one that welcomes visitors to the Gare du Midi in Brussels. Many of the visitors to the Tintin Festival (Namur, 8, 9 and 10 May 2009) and the Hergé Museum (Louvain-la-Neuve, from the start of June) will be using these stations. See you there!
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