Tintin: 'Poignant' final image of Hergé’s much-loved character goes on display in London

Somerset House is opening an exhibition about the intrepid reporter and his author and illustrator

‘Tintin: Hergés Masterpiece’ chronicles the evolution of the character (Hergé-Moulinsart 2015)

The final, “poignant” image of Tintin, drawn shortly before creator Hergé’s death, is to go on display in London – with one expert speculating it may give a clue to the intrepid reporter’s final fate.

Tomorrow Somerset House opens “Tintin: Hergé’s Masterpiece”, an exhibition about the much-loved character and his author and illustrator.

The show examines the evolution of Tintin, from his first appearance in the children’s supplement of a Belgian newspaper – Le Petit Vingtième – in 1929, to a reproduction of the very last image Hergé drew, for the unfinished book Tintin and Alph-Art, before his death in 1983.

The image shows Tintin’s adversary Endaddine Akass marching the hero off to be covered in liquid polyester.

Michael Farr, a “Tintin-ologist”, said it was “a very poignant final sketch, where he shows Tintin about to be turned into a living statue. It may have been the end of Tintin, we don’t know. Hergé died shortly after”.