A thousand scuttles! World record broken for a drawing by Hergé in black and white. Artcurial organized on February 10 in Paris an auction dedicated to the universe of the creator of Tintin. Of the 104 lots offered, the sale of number 12, an original black and white drawing by Hergé, reached the sum of 1,700,000 euros, or 2,158,000 including fees.
This plate, realized in 1942 and published in 1946 for the cover of Tintin in America this drawing represents the journalist reporter with the famous puffball, tied to a post behind an Amerindian chief brandishing an axe. This monochrome drawing of a beautiful size, 52.3 x 36 cm, is of pure "Hergéen" style, style resulting from the technique known as the clear line in the field of the comic strip.
The clear line technique, the Hergé style
This term of clear line was formulated for the first time in 1977 by the Dutch illustrator Joost Swarte in the catalog of the Tintin exhibition in Rotterdam.
This way of drawing existed before Tintin showed up. It was already found in the drawings of Bécassine or Zig et Puce. Hergé, equipped with blue pencil, graphite, Indian ink and gouache, took up and improved this drawing technique.
The basic characteristics of what was to become the clear line were linked to the constraints of the printing techniques of the children's periodicals era.
A source of inspiration for the Belgian illustrator, the clear line became the Hergé style: a sober and clean graphics, a line in black ink of constant thickness surrounding all the elements of the vignette, flat areas of differentiated colors when there is color, without play of shadows (except for vehicles) and lights (Hergé will make a few exceptions like in the Mysterious Star or the shadow of Philippulus is drawn on the wallâeuros¦), realistic settings, shots that follow each other with unity and continuity and especiallyâeuros¦ rectangular phylacteries with texts in lower case.
The clear line is now carried by a generation of authors of comics under the label Ecole de Bruxelles.
