http://intransit.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/26/at-a-paris-museum-a-portrait-of-tintin/?emc=edit_tnt_20150326&nlid=8294704&tntemail0=y&_r=0
At a Paris Museum, a Portrait of Tintin
The Hergé Museum was created in 2009 in the cartoonist’s native Belgium, but people will be able to see his work in Paris at the Musée en Herbe through Aug. 31.
The exhibition “Tintin’s Imaginary Museum” pairs Hergé’s illustrations with art objects similar to those depicted in his pages.
The Musée en Herbe’s presentation, although a diminutive two-room affair, manages to bring important elements of Hergé’s legacy into a small space. The first room showcases a handful of original drawings from the cartoonist’s 50-year career.
The second room juxtaposes images from the Tintin series with representative talismans and ethnological objects, organized according to region. Tintin’s journey to Egypt, as depicted in “Cigars of the Pharaoh,” is referenced by the sarcophagus on loan from the Louvre’s Department of Egyptian Antiquities.
Tintin’s pursuit of a drug-smuggling ring in China is cited via an ivory-tipped opium pipe and a traditional Chinese satin cap, both featured in “The Blue Lotus.”
Hergé — an inverted acronym of Georges Rémi’s initials in French, R (“her”) G (“gé”) — created “The Adventures of Tintin” as a serialized comic for a Belgian newspaper in 1929. Although Hergé sent Tintin around the world, he himself never traveled widely. (Hergé’s lack of travel experience fed the accusations leveled at him for stereotypical depictions of non-European cultures.)
His intrigue for foreign lands was inspired, for the most part, by exotic objects that he saw at auctions.
The Musée en Herbe, which has an educational mission, caters primarily to children and provides exhibit-related activities, notably a booklet indicating clues sprinkled throughout the installation.
But those who grew up reading Tintin are likely to enjoy it as well.
“It’s almost a hundred years old, and it hasn’t aged,” said the museum director Sylvie Girardet of Hergé’s work. “Everyone has their memories of him,” she noted, fondly recalling her own fierce negotiations with siblings for first dibs on each new Tintin tome.
Audio guides for the exhibit are available in English, in versions for adults and children.
A version of the exhibition was staged at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels in 1979.
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