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Hergé: "Dropsy" artwork from 1938 on auction

prairiegrass
Member
#1 · Posted: 22 Jan 2015 09:19
Hey all,

I was perusing the auction sites today and found what's given as Lot 80: Pencil Drawing, "Dropsy", by Hergé, 1938 an original pencil drawing from a series of promotional cartoons.

I have to admit, I don't recollect these characters, and don't remember seeing them at the Musée Hergé on my last visit.

For me, I think this is some of the oldest original art I've seen from Hergé for sale.

Someone will be very lucky to own it!

August
jock123
Moderator
#2 · Posted: 22 Jan 2015 16:49
Interesting! I think I'd still want some more history on the sketch before handing my money over, though; not certain about that signature, and the actual nature of the piece is in need of some further fleshing out. It's similar to, but not the same as the sample printed illustration, so what was it for?
prairiegrass
Member
#3 · Posted: 23 Jan 2015 00:03
Yes, I agree. The block letter based signatures seem "weird" to me but from what I understand they were fairly common at first (30s-50s?). It's interesting how Herge's block-letter based signature is used in all the books but not in person. I suppose, as one signs more and more autographs, the time taken for the block letter ones becomes difficult.

jock123 - do you know any details about the different types of signatures? Is there any hidden story (or meaning) behind Herge using the block signatures or did they just "evolve" with time, age and fame, etc?

Cheers,

August
jock123
Moderator
#4 · Posted: 23 Jan 2015 09:24
I'm certain that Hergé was no different to anyone else - as you say, signatures change over time - so I'm sure that there was no great significance to how he wrote his name, other than trying to find a style he liked.
It would have been unusual for Hergé to autograph something in block letters, but not so for signing commercial work for print - however, although I can't recall seeing a pencil rendition of his block signature, I woudldn't expect it to look like this - this is very scrappy, all things considered.

In the case of this image, well, I'd just like there to be more to tie it Hergé directly: the image is okay, but not great, the signature is a bit awkward, and the source is unknown - I mean, it being in a bag stamped "archive" scarcely seems relevant, if we don't know which archive that is.
As I said, a provenance for how it came to be, and where it is from would certainly help, especially at that price!
Mikael Uhlin
Member
#5 · Posted: 24 Jan 2015 14:29
According to Benoit Peeters' book "Le Monde d'Hergé", Dropsy was the name of the parrot while the girl was named Antoinette and the boy was named Antoine (like the sweets confectioner they were promoting). The dog (which looks as if it could be a sibling of Snowy!) was named Plouf. Six pages of the comic was made, the first one being reproduced in "Le Monde d'Hergé".
glendale
Member
#6 · Posted: 29 Jan 2015 05:53
Those are early images and look familiar as from the books of Jo, Zette and Jocko by Herge.
jock123
Moderator
#7 · Posted: 29 Jan 2015 08:04
glendale:
Those are early images and look familiar as from the books

Oh, I have no concerns about what Dropsy is - I'm just suggesting that the quality of the drawing and signature here are not great, and thus I'd want a proper history for why this specific image was done, and how it came down to us today.
prairiegrass
Member
#8 · Posted: 1 Feb 2015 08:06
Looks like it was passed in ...
jock123
Moderator
#9 · Posted: 2 Feb 2015 10:08
It certainly didn't sell...
I'm sure with the right provenance it would be a gem in anyone's collection, but without more supporting material, it's just a piece of old-looking paper with what could be a tracing on it...
€5K-€7K is lot of money to spend on trust.

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