Jacques Van Melkebeke (1904-1983) - Nue à la fourrure

Oil on canvas depicting and titled Nude with fur "Christiane" signed

Jacques Van Melkebeke (1904-1983)

Jacques Van Melkebeke (1904-1983) was a Belgian painter, journalist, writer, and comic-book screenwriter, regarded as the Franco-Belgian comics’ “man of the shadows.” A close friend of Hergé and Edgar P. Jacobs, he played a key role in developing the adventures of Tintin and Blake and Mortimer, while serving as the first editor-in-chief of the Tintin magazine in 1946.

Career and major contributions:

Collaboration with Hergé: He provided semi-official narrative and cultural support to several Tintin albums, notably The Secret of the Unicorn and The Seven Crystal Balls, and co-wrote plays with the author.
Blake and Mortimer: Although Edgar P. Jacobs disputed it, he is often credited with contributing to certain elements of this series, and Van Melkebeke’s personality is said to have inspired the character Philip Victor Mortimer.
Journalism: He worked for Le Soir and Le Nouveau Journal during the German occupation, which hampered his post-war career.
Post-war controversy: After Liberation, Van Melkebeke was accused of collaboration due to his writings for collaborationist press during World War II. Although he mainly published cultural articles, this accusation led to his imprisonment (notably at Petit-Château prison from 1947 to 1949) and to working under anonymity thereafter, preventing full public recognition of his influence. He died in Brussels on 8 June 1983, three months after Hergé.

Dimensions of the work: without frame: 50 cm x 60 cm
with frame: 60 cm x 70 cm

The work is dated 1970 and signed bottom right

Auction results for Jacques VAN MELKEBEKE in Painting:

Nude with striped fabric (1966)
Jacques VAN MELKEBEKE
Oil on canvas
52 x 62 cm
Estimate: €400 - €600
Hammer price: €900
22/02/2023 - 01/03/2023
Sotheby’s
Nude, feminine, lying down with yellow drapery (1964)
Jacques VAN MELKEBEKE
Oil on canvas
50 x 60 cm
Estimate: €300 - €500
Hammer price: €850
29/05/2019
Vanderkindere
Nude in a chair (1964)
Jacques VAN MELKEBEKE
Oil on canvas
50 x 60 cm
Estimate: €300 - €500
Hammer price: €750
26/07/2021
Hotel des Ventes Giraudeau SARL
Girls on a scooter in front of a peacock (1940)
Jacques VAN MELKEBEKE
Oil on canvas
60 x 70 cm
Estimate: €500 - €700
Hammer price: €650
09/10/2017
Horta