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Hergé: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Hergé
Georges Remi was born on the 22nd of May 1907 in a grey, monochrome suburb of Brussels called Etterbeek, where his lower-middle-class family lived in a house that would later be renamed 33 rue Philippe Baucq. His father worked in a confectionery factory while his mother was a housewife, and the young Georges grew up with a Marollien accent inherited from his maternal grandmother. He was not a particularly devout Catholic, yet his life was dominated by the rigid structures of the Roman Catholic Church and the conservative values of his upbringing. His childhood was marked by a profound melancholy, which biographer Benoît Peeters suggested might have been exacerbated by sexual abuse from a maternal uncle named Charles Arthur Dufour. Despite this, Remi found solace in cinema, favoring the slapstick of Charlie Chaplin and the animation of Winsor McCay, which would later influence his own comic strip style. He was a successful student, graduating at the top of his class in 1925, but his true passion lay in drawing scenes of daily life along the edges of his school books, including sketches of German soldiers during the occupation of Brussels in World War I. At the age of 12, he joined the Boy Scouts, earning the nickname Curious Fox, and his experiences there provided a moral compass that stressed personal loyalty and keeping one's promises. His Scoutmaster, Rene Weverbergh, encouraged his artistic ability, publishing one of his drawings in the newsletter Jamais Assez, marking his first published work. He continued to publish cartoons and woodcuts in subsequent issues, experimenting with pseudonyms like Jérémie and Jérémiades before settling on Hergé, the French pronunciation of his reversed initials, which first appeared in print in December 1924.
Propaganda And The First Tintin
In 1929, Hergé launched The Adventures of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, a story designed as conservative propaganda for children under the direction of his employer, the Abbé Norbert Wallez. Wallez, a vocal fascist who kept a signed photograph of Benito Mussolini on his desk, had hired Hergé as a photographic reporter and cartoonist for the newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle, a conservative Catholic publication. The early Tintin stories were explicitly political, with Tintin in the Land of the Soviets serving as anti-socialist propaganda, while Tintin in the Congo was designed to encourage colonial sentiment towards the Belgian Congo, depicting Congolese people as childlike idiots in a paternalistic style. Tintin in America followed, pushing an anti-capitalist, anti-consumerist agenda that aligned with the paper's ultra-conservative ideology. Hergé was initially unsatisfied with his work, but the popularity of the stories led to an increase in sales, and Wallez granted him two assistants, Eugène Van Nyverseel and Paul Jamin. In 1930, he introduced Quick and Flupke, a comic strip about two street kids from Brussels, and in 1932, he began serializing Tintin in the Orient, later renamed Cigars of the Pharaoh. This mystery story introduced recurring characters like Thomson and Thompson and the antagonist Rastapopoulos. Hergé's early work was heavily influenced by American comics like Bringing Up Father and Krazy Kat, which he had received from a reporter named Léon Degrelle. Despite his growing success, Hergé remained a conservative young man, and his early political views were deeply embedded in his work, reflecting the right-wing milieu of 1920s and 1930s Belgium. He was close to traditional right-wing circles, and his work was seen as a personification of the New Youth concept promoted by the European far-right. However, he never joined the far-right Rexist Party, later asserting that he had always had an aversion to it.
Georges Remi was born on the 22nd of May 1907 in Etterbeek, a suburb of Brussels. He grew up in a lower-middle-class family house that was later renamed 33 rue Philippe Baucq.
What was the political nature of Hergé's early Tintin stories?
Hergé launched The Adventures of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets in 1929 as conservative propaganda for children under the direction of Abbé Norbert Wallez. Early stories like Tintin in the Congo were designed to encourage colonial sentiment and depicted Congolese people as childlike idiots in a paternalistic style.
How did Hergé change his political and artistic outlook in 1934?
The serialization of The Blue Lotus in 1934 marked a dramatic shift in Hergé's career after he was influenced by his friend Zhang Chongren. He rejected his classically right-wing ideas to embrace an anti-imperialist stance and developed a largely realistic portrayal of China.
Why was Hergé arrested in 1944 and what were the consequences?
Hergé was arrested on the 3rd of September 1944 after being named as a collaborator in a Resistance document known as the Gallery of Traitors. He spent one night in jail and faced accusations of being a traitor for years, although no formal charges were brought against him.
When did Hergé die and what was his final health condition?
Hergé died at Saint-Luc hospital on the 3rd of March 1983 at the age of 75 after suffering cardiac arrest. His health had been declining since 1979 when he was diagnosed with osteomyelofibrosis, requiring frequent blood transfusions.
When was the Hergé Museum established and what does it contain?
A Hergé Museum was established in Louvain-la-Neuve in 2009 to display original artwork by Hergé. The museum contains eight permanent galleries that tell the story of his life and career which had not previously been visible to the public.
The turning point in Hergé's career came in 1934 with the serialization of The Blue Lotus, a story set in China that marked a dramatic shift in his artistic and political outlook. Hergé had been greatly influenced by his friend Zhang Chongren, a Catholic Chinese student studying at Brussels' Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, to whom he had been introduced in May 1934. Zhang gave him lessons in Taoist philosophy, Chinese art, and Chinese calligraphy, influencing not only his artistic style but also his general outlook on life. As a token of appreciation, Hergé added a fictional character named Chang Chong-Chen to The Blue Lotus, a young Chinese boy who meets and befriends Tintin. For this story, Hergé devoted far more attention to accuracy, resulting in a largely realistic portrayal of China that was widely hailed as his first masterpiece. The story also dealt with the recent Japanese invasion of Manchuria, and Hergé rejected his classically right-wing ideas to embrace an anti-imperialist stance. This shift was further evident in a contemporary Quick and Flupke strip in which he lampooned the far-right leaders of Germany and Italy, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Hergé had long been critical of racism, and in The Blue Lotus, he ridiculed racist attitudes toward the Chinese. The story was a benchmark in the series' development, and Casterman published it in book form, insisting that Hergé include color plates in both the volume and in reprints of earlier stories. Despite his growing success, Hergé remained a private person, and his political views continued to evolve, moving away from the conservative, right-wing ideas of his early career. He was no more racist than the next man, according to biographer Benoît Peeters, and his work reflected the changing times and his own growing awareness of the world around him.
War And The Collaborator's Shadow
When Germany invaded Belgium in May 1940, Hergé and his wife fled to France, but he returned to Brussels after King Leopold III surrendered the country. He found his house occupied by the German army's Propagandastaffel and faced financial trouble due to back taxes. Le Vingtième Siècle was shut down, and Hergé was offered employment as a cartoonist for Le Soir, a newspaper controlled by the Nazi administration. He accepted the position, believing that the newspaper's large readership of 600,000 was too significant to ignore. Hergé was involved in the creation of a children's supplement, Soir-Jeunesse, and relaunched The Adventures of Tintin with The Crab with the Golden Claws, which introduced Captain Haddock. The story rejected the political themes present in earlier stories, remaining firmly neutral. However, Hergé's decision to work for Le Soir would haunt him for the rest of his life. After the Allied liberation of Belgium in 1944, Le Soir was shut down, and Hergé was arrested on the 3rd of September, having been named as a collaborator in a Resistance document known as the Gallery of Traitors. He spent one night in jail and was publicly lampooned as a collaborator by a newspaper closely associated with the Belgian Resistance. A judiciary inquiry was launched, and although no charges were brought against him, he faced accusations of having been a traitor and collaborator for years. Hergé later admitted that he hated the Resistance thing, knowing that for every one of the Resistance's actions, hostages would be arrested and shot. The post-war period was the greatest upheaval of his life, and he considered the trials of alleged collaborators a great injustice inflicted upon many innocent people. He never forgave Belgian society for the way that he had been treated, although he hid this from his public persona.
The Studio And The Personal Turmoil
In 1950, Hergé established Studios Hergé as a public company, based in his Avenue Delleur house in Brussels. The studio initially had only three employees, but the staff would increase to 15, all working on Hergé's projects. He hired Bob de Moor as his primary apprentice in March 1951 and persuaded Jacques Martin to join the studio in January 1954. The studio provided both personal support to Hergé and technical support for his ongoing work. However, Hergé's personal life was in turmoil following the collapse of his first marriage. He had a number of affairs with other women, including an extramarital affair with a young colorist named Fanny Vlamynck, which he revealed to his wife Germaine in 1957. The affair led to a temporary separation, and Hergé began experiencing traumatic dreams dominated by the color white. He visited a psychoanalyst named Franz Ricklin, a student of Carl Jung, to try to understand his dreams. His relationship with Germaine had ended, and although he was unable to obtain a divorce until 17 years later, he continued to visit her and financially support her. Hergé's personal life was further complicated by his relationship with his brother Paul, who had returned from a German prisoner-of-war camp, and his mother, who had become highly delusional and was moved to a psychiatric hospital. Hergé was a highly private person, described by biographer Harry Thompson as reserved and unostentatious, but in reality, he was extremely erudite, with an insatiable curiosity. He greatly enjoyed walking in the countryside, gardening, and art collecting, and he was a fan of jazz music. Despite his success, Hergé remained a complex and often contradictory figure, struggling with his personal demons while creating some of the most beloved comics of the 20th century.
The Final Years And A Legacy
In the 1960s, Hergé became increasingly annoyed at the success of René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo's Asterix comic book series, which had eclipsed The Adventures of Tintin as the foremost comic in the Franco-Belgian tradition. He agreed to the production of two animated Belvision films based on the Adventures of Tintin, and in 1982, the US filmmaker Steven Spielberg requested the film rights for a live-action adaptation of one of The Adventures of Tintin, a prospect that excited Hergé, but the project would not come to fruition until long after his death. Hergé's health began to decline in 1979 when he was diagnosed with osteomyelofibrosis, necessitating a complete blood transfusion. His need for blood transfusions increased, and he came to require them every two weeks, and then every week. On the 25th of February 1983, Hergé suffered cardiac arrest and was hospitalized in intensive care at Brussels' Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc. He had been scheduled to meet with Steven Spielberg, who later made The Adventures of Tintin in 2011. He died at Saint-Luc on the 3rd of March, at the age of 75. His death received front page coverage in numerous francophone newspapers, including Libération and Le Monde. In his will, he had left Fanny as his sole heir. In November 1986, Fanny closed Studios Hergé, replacing it with the Hergé Foundation. In 1988, Tintin magazine was discontinued. Hergé's works have been widely acclaimed for their clarity of draughtsmanship and meticulous, well-researched plots. They have been the source of a wide range of adaptations, in theatre, radio, television, cinema, and computer gaming. He remains a strong influence on the comic book medium, particularly in Europe. He is widely celebrated in Belgium, and a Hergé Museum was established in Louvain-la-Neuve in 2009. The museum contains eight permanent galleries displaying original artwork by Hergé, and telling the story of his life and career which had not previously been visible to the public. Hergé's legacy continues to inspire new generations of artists and readers, and his work remains a testament to the power of storytelling and the enduring appeal of Tintin.