Description

Jacques van Melkebeke B&W / Color Crayon Drawing ‘nude’

Private Collection Estate Sale

B&W crayon drawing by Jacques Van Melkebeke

Heightened (enhanced) with color crayon

Representing a ‘nude alongated lady’

Not dated but from the mid 1950’s

Signed in the right hand lower corner

Wooden frame : 43,5 x 33,5 cm

Drawing size : 35,8 x 27 cm

Info on Jacques van Melkebeke : Jacques Van Melkebeke (12 December 1904 – 8 June 1983) was a Belgian painter, journalist, writer, and comic strip writer. He was the first chief editor of Tintin magazine and wrote scripts and articles anonymously for many of their publications.

A friend of Hergé, Van Melkebeke took part in a semi-official way in the development of some of the storylines of The Adventures of Tintin, adding a number of cultural references. He is also supposed to have contributed to certain elements of the Blake and Mortimer series, although Edgar P. Jacobs disputed this fact.[1] Van Melkebeke’s personality was one of the main sources of inspiration for the Blake and Mortimer character Philip Angus Mortimer.

Born in Brussels, Van Melkebeke was a childhood friend of Edgar Jacobs and Jacques Laudy. He spent his twenties pursuing fine art painting.

During the German occupation of Belgium during World War II, Van Melkebeke was responsible for main articles in Le Soir Jeunesse, the children’s supplement of the daily newspaper Le Soir. During this period, when he first crossed paths with Hergé, Van Melkebeke’s strip Les Nouvelles Aventures du Baron de Crac ran in Le Soir as well. As a fine arts painter himself, Van Melkebeke encouraged Hergé’s own interest in art, introducing him to art world figures of the time. Van Melkebeke painted a portrait of Hergé which hung in the cartoonist’s home for many decades. Van Melkebeke co-wrote with Hergé two Tintin plays which were staged from 1941 to 1942: Tintin in India: The Mystery of the Blue Diamond and Mr. Boullock’s Disappearance.

Although he had primarily written cultural articles, after the war Van Melkebeke’s position at Le Soir Jeunesse resulted in a 1945 judgment of collaboration and of incitement of racial hatred. This suspicion of “incivism” prevented Van Melkebeke from continuing a regular career in journalism; for instance, after Van Melkebeke became the first editor of Tintin magazine in 1946, he was immediately forced to step down. From that point, Van Melkebeke worked under the pseudonym George Jacquet or as a ghostwriter, on such projects as Tintin, Laudy’s strip Hassan et Kaddour, and Paul Cuvelier’s Corentin.

In the mid-1950s Van Melkebeke worked on a new children’s comic strip called Les Farces de l’Empereur for Ons Volkske/Chez Nous.

In 1954, Van Melkebeke suggested to Hergé the idea of setting Tintin in Tibet (1958–1960) in that country, possibly being influenced by the fact that he had set the play Mr. Boullock’s Disappearance there. Van Melkebeke spent his later years returning to the field of fine art painting

Bibliographie

• Benoît Mouchart. A l’ombre de la ligne claire: Jacques Van Melkebeke, le clandestin de la B.D. Paris: Vertige Graphic, 2002.ISBN 2-908981-71-8
• Philippe Biermé. Edgar P. Jacobs et les deux Jacques, Ed. Fondation Edgar P. Jacobs, 2007

Anecdotes

• Hergé l’a représenté en première page de la réédition de l’album Tintin au Congo, parmi les journalistes interviewant Tintin. D’autres représentations par Hergé se trouvent page 59 de l’album Le Sceptre d’Ottokar (parmi les nobles), au premier plan de la case D2 de la page 2 de l’album Le Secret de La Licorne et au second plan de la case A2 de la page 57 de l’album Les 7 boules de cristal

Notes et références

1. Interview de Jacques Martin [archive] par Hugues Dayez, Intérêt-général Info, 2 juin 2010, consulté le 30 juillet 2012.
2. Entre Jacobs et Hergé [archive], Clins d’œil et bande dessinée, 26 décembre 2010, consulté le 30 juillet 2012.

Drawing on sale is in extreme fine conditions