In China with Tintin

To mark Tintin’s birthday and the release of the colorized version of the album, the Musée Hergé is offering visitors a new temporary exhibition on the theme of the Blue Lotus!

“ Meeting Chang in Brussels in 1934 was a major event in Hergé’s life. It was then that he realized that “the others” would no longer be mere extras for Tintin. The foreigner became a friend. Tchang didn’t represent just any otherness. He opened up Hergé’s art to the flows of the Chinese brush. Without Tchang and his art of flow, the clear line could have become too hard, a line of steel. “

Pierre Sterckx. The Art of Hergé, Éditions Moulinsart, 2016

In 1934, Hergé made the acquaintance of Tchang Tchong-Jena young Chinese student at the Beaux-Arts in Brussels. For the two artists, this cultural encounter between East and West was a tremendous opening onto the world, but also, and above all, the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Their complicity is such that it continues on paper to give birth to a new Tintin adventure. But this adventure is more sensitive and more human than the previous ones, as it is placed under the sign of the fraternity that develops between Tintin and Tchang.

The black-and-white album appeared in 1936, the year in which Charles Lesne (editorial director at Casterman) invited Hergé to “enter a new field: that of color”. But Hergé hesitated, as “the line is the real backbone” of his style. After a great deal of thought and discussion, Hergé was persuaded to take the plunge in 1942 with the album The Mysterious Star. The previous 4 albums (with the exception of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets) were adapted. Faced with wartime paper shortages, the Tournais-based publisher was forced to significantly reduce the number of pages per album. From then on, the albums had 64 pages.

From 1945 onwards, Hergé, with the help of Jacobs, set to work on formatting the Blue Lotuswhich underwent changes in framing and cutting. This was a masterly job, since the story had to retain its rhythm and fluidity. For the color scheme, Hergé opted for solid colors, which he felt had the merit of simplicity and legibility, in order to preserve the clarity of his work. This means that, with a few rare exceptions, tints are applied in flat tints, i.e. with no regard for shading or gradation.

The Blue Lotusa colorful adventure and artistic work, to be (re)discovered through original plates, old documents and photographs from Hergé’s archives.

Texts and images © Hergé / Tintinimaginatio – 2025