Tintin Forums

Hi
I saw this on eBay - a signed sketch by Herge for £100. Personally, looking at the drawing, I'd say that it is a fake. I mean look at the nose! Here's the link:URL

In my opinion the sketch is certainly faked: it has been crudely copied from a drawing in Tintin and Alph-Art, which was on the cover (and folio 8) of the 1986 edition, or page 13 of the 2004 edition. To add to the inauthenticity, this image wasn't released until three years after Hergé's death!

I couldn't say if the signature is genuine, but the sketch is certainly not by Hergé's hand.

Ed

It's too carefully drawn, almost laborious. I don't think the nose is an indicator - look at Hergé's sketches, he sketches quickly and roughly. Anyway, as Ed says it is taken from the old Alph-Art book, even with the shoulders drawn in position to hold the 'H' but not followed through. Gah! It's horrible. I'm not convinced by that E H Shepard he's selling either, but I don't know his work that well.

I don't know if the seller knows they're fake, or is ignorant of their origin. Hope no one bids on that Hergé though.

Yes, that seller is selling lots of autographs, like Roy Litchtenstein. I wonder if they are fake too?

Looking at his ID history, he's sold a number of autographed drawings - Schultz, Searle etc - and they seem quite convincing. The Hergé is definitely fake; aside from the fact it's traced from the bookcover, his dedications generally looked like this.

Looking at the Shepard I'd say that it might be a fake- his illustrations for Milne's stories were sketchier, this one looks quite heavily drawn and with no shading on Eeyore's body. It would help with higher resolution images to study the linework.

I can't say about the others as I've no real experience, but the Quentin Blake one may be for real; the seller's sold a few of his (either that or he's mastered the style).

but the Quentin Blake one may be for real; the seller's sold a few of his (either that or he's mastered the style).

It wouldn't be hard to fake a Quentin Blake. It's just scribbles! Interestingly, the drawing looks like it was done with the same pen as the signature!

Richard
The Hergé is definitely fake

To err on the side of caution here, I think that we should steer away from definitive statements as to whether or not these things are genuine, and restrict ourselves to making it clear that what is being made is an opinion [albeit an informed one].

I’m all for caveat emptor, but perhaps it would be better to find out the provenance of the sketch etc. which the seller may be only too able to offer, before condemning it out of hand.

I’d also offer the following: many artists - including, for example, E.C. Seeger, the creator of Thimble Theater and Popeye - have used some sort of reproduction system to cater to the number of sketches that get requested, without the recipient either being aware or knowing that their sketch wasn’t original, which might explain the similarities to the Alph-Art drawing.

Secondly, on a recent BBC Antiques Roadshow an old lady brought in several Shepherd drawings, and had a good provenance for the collection, as he was friend of the family. She had an autograph book amongst other things, with a picture of Tigger and Pooh at a table, which the expert pointed out was almost identical in every respect to an illustration in one of the books, in composition, proportion etc., and EHS had drawn it from memory after a period of years had passed. So may be some artists do produce the same drawing over again.

On the against side, I’d repeat what Bernard Tordeur said at Greenwich: he has been asked several times to apraise Hergé sketches for authenticity, and has yet to be shown what he considers to be an original…

I’d repeat what Bernard Tordeur said at Greenwich: he has been asked several times to apraise Hergé sketches for authenticity, and has yet to be shown what he considers to be an original…

Michael Turner says something very similar in Chris Owen's interview.

I agree entirely with your points jock, and concede that it is possible for an artist to reproduce independently a drawing from a previously published work. However in this case I find it hard to believe that the drawing is a true Hergé. I’ll make clear that what follows is my opinion only on the authenticity of the sketch and does not have any bearing on the seller’s honesty.

A comparison between this image and the relevant one from Alph-Art (easiest done using the 1986 cover) is fairly clear in showing that the ‘forger’ has used Hergé’s original as a basis. In particular, the line extending diagonally back from Tintin’s left eyebrow, the long nose, and what appears to be a flap of Tintin’s collar. Some licence has been used in converting Tintin’s frown into a half-smile!

If the drawing is a genuine Hergé, we would have to ask why Hergé chose that one specifically for an autograph. Aside from it being chosen for the cover of the first edition of Alph-Art (something which Hergé had no influence over) I would argue that it’s not a particulary arresting or striking image in its current form. Perhaps it would have been had the story been finished, but in context among the other sketches on page 8 it’s a fairly inconsequential sketch to use again. I find it unlikely that Hergé would depart from his usual practice of supplying a ‘headshot’ of Tintin and Snowy in favour of this one. I don’t recall seeing an example of Hergé’s autograph where he has reproduced an illustration from a book before, but if he were to, I would think it to have been much more likely taken from an already-published work that the recipient would recognise, rather than a work-in-progress.

I’ll repeat: this does not necessarily mean the seller has deliberately faked the drawing and intends to deceive. For all we know they could be selling it in good faith, unaware of its provenance, and may even have wrongly paid good money for it believing it to be genuine. I would add that their eBay description does not claim that they were present when Hergé supposedly drew it, and that the sentence “paper is frayed at the end due I think from being riped [sic] out of the book” suggests that it was given to them by somebody else.

[/lawyerspeak] ;-)

Ed

P.S. I did contact the seller and ask them to clarify a few things but so far I have had no reply.

“paper is frayed at the end due I think from being riped [sic] out of the book”

One of the most common things autograph/map/document forgers do is to take or find some genuinely old paper, parchment, or perhaps the end pages of someone's old autograph book where the pages are still blank (let's say), and apply the new fake work to the paper. It helps authenticity.

As I stated already, I'm not accusing the seller, he may be ignorant of the fact that this drawing is almost certainly a bad forgery. I see it's up to £112 currently. :-(

I see it's up to £112 currently. :-(

It started at £100. Do you think it's worth showing the bidders a link to this post!