Esteve Fort: Tintin drinking whisky in a bar

I once visited a friend in Belgium who had a print of a painting of Tintin sitting at a bar drinking whisky and smoking a cigarette. This painting was apparently influenced by the passing of Hergé. I don't know who the artist was but he painted this piece just after Hergé died - it was so moving that I wanted to get my hands on this work.

Does anyone know of this work, and possibly by whom it was done?

You might be referring to a painting by Esteve Fort. It can be found in the book Hommage à Hergé produced by the Fondation Joan Miro.

I think I have the painting you're referring to (which I had negligently left to get crumpled beneath a pie of papers in a very sadsack shelf I have).

I'll describe it for you, because it's a pretty remarkable mental image:

Tintin is on the far left of the paper (mine's a reproduction, obviously) with a frown and dejected eyes. He's holding a lit cigarette and glass of whisky in his left hand. His elbow is propped on the counter, next to an ashtray (with an extinguished butt in it) and a 3/4 empty bottle of Loch Lomond whisky. His right hand is in his pocket. His left foot rests on the foot-bar of his bar stool, and his right foot is on the ground.

Next to his foot is Snowy, turned away from the viewer, looking at his master. There is also a newspaper whose main story shows a picture of Tintin smiling, and whose headline is illegible.

At the right end of the bar, the bartender appears to be washing a glass or something, with a woman in a cocktail dress sitting in front of him.

The signature isn't clear, but it looks like it probably does say "Esteve Fort," and is marked '83, which would be in keeping with the Hergé passing theme...

Very nice scene, given to me by a friend. There are a number of variations on this theme.

Yeah it is Esteve Fort. I have the book on the exhibition 'Hommage a Hergé', it's called 'Kuifje in Barcelona'. I posted a thread on it a while ago: Kuifje in Barcelona thread.

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Greetings!

Navigating through the net I found this forum and I thought you would like to hear some things about this drawing… if not directly from the painter, then from his son, which I am.

Please forgive my sometimes not perfect English spelling, as is not my mother language.

As correctly mentioned, this drawing was made for an exhibition held at Fundació Miró in Barcelona, as a tribute to Hergé after his then recent death. Among many other artist works there was this pastel drawing from Esteve.

After the exhibition, the picture was edited and sold as poster.
Following the one of Tintín sitting at the bar, some more drawings with other themes were made and published, not just variations on the Tintin at the bar you have talked of here, but still Tintin related.

Tintin at the Bar is my favourite too, but there is a poster with the title Nighthawks Revisited showing the well-known Edward Hopper painting but using Tintin characters, which I like a lot too…

All these posters are not in print anymore, as far as we know, since Hergé´s foundation sets a very strict control on any use of the Tintín images. There were some copyright problems and all the posters were taken away from the shops, so they are kind of hard to find now.

Glad you liked them!

Thanks for that A! It's a fantastic painting - hats off to your Father! And I've seen the Edward Hopper/Tintin pastiche you refer to somewhere so maybe that's in the Miro book too. The copyright problems you mention might also have been due to the fact that Tintin is in a bar drinking and smoking - Moulinsart are known to be quite sensitive about how Tintin is portrayed.

I have posters of 3 drawings made by Esteve Fort. The one where he sits in a bar drinking whiskey, nighthawks revisited and another one where Tintin is leaning against a wall enjoying a can of a coca-cola look-a-like soft drink. Beautiful works!

I have the Tintin at a bar print, the Nighthawks Revisited print, and also one called 'Cherubini dei Comics' which is based on a famous painting of 2 cherubs, but has them as Tintin and snowy instead!

I also have numerous other 'Tintin inspired' works, including a very funny one of Tintin finding the yeti and Chang sitting in a cave with the yeti reading Chang Tintin books, surrounded by articles from the adventures e.g. the fetish, a box of cigars, a toy moon rocket etc. Also a great one of Tintin and Snowy as Sumo wrestlers!!

Is it possible to get a full size copy of the bar print? Right now I use it as my background on my computer at work.

If the art work is copyrighted, please only point us to where the print may be purchased. Please be careful not to break any laws. :-)