Planted in the garden opposite the headquarters of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in Lisbon, a model of the iconic rocket painted with red and white squares sets the tone. Inside the building, the exhibition Hergé, dedicated to the creator of Tintin, has a nucleus dedicated precisely to the album Tintin – Rumo à Lua, where sketches, drawings, previous studies and models presented how one of these stories was born.

But there is more to see and learn beyond the iconic reporter who first appeared on January 10, 1929, in the pages of the youth supplement Petit Vingtième.

The exhibition, promoted by the Hergé Museum, in Belgium, and already presented at the Petit Palais, in Paris, is organized into nine groups that explore different facets of the author’s work and personality.

‘Hergé, the art lover’, for example, shows how this passion enriched his imagination and reveals his collector’s facet – his private collection included works by Jean Dubuffet, Lucio Fontana and Serge Poliakoff, here apar, as well as the portrait of Hergé by Andy Warhol.

On the other hand, ‘Success and the storm’ focuses on the period in which German troops occupied Belgium and the newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle, where Tintin’s vignettes were published, is extinct. «For the designer, World War II coincides with a period of success: never had his albums in circulation at Casterman been so large. But it was, above all, the time of its graphic maturity. Pressed by the editor, […] Hergé finally adopted the color in The Mysterious Star”, explains the foundation.

The exhibition Hergé is on patent until January 10th at the main gallery of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.