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Souvenir of a Castle in Vosges

1857
Not on view
Beyond his careers as a statesman and a celebrated novelist—writing such classics as "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" and "Les Misérables"—Hugo was an innovative draftsman, although he kept his drawing practice private. He made many of his drawings, including this one, during his almost twenty-year exile from France on Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, following Napoleon III's 1851 coup-d'état, which he vocally opposed. On this sheet, Hugo obtained the outline of the castle using a cut-paper stencil, transforming it with his pen and layers of moody wash and atmospheric gouache to evoke a memory from the Vosges Mountains of eastern France.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Souvenir of a Castle in Vosges
  • Artist: Victor Hugo (French, Besançon 1802–1885 Paris)
  • Date: 1857
  • Medium: Brush and iron gall washes, pen and iron gall ink, white gouache; outline of castle obtained by using a paper stencil
  • Dimensions: sheet: 18 1/2 x 12 3/16 in. (47 x 31 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, Donald Young Foundation Gift, Harry G. Sperling Fund, and Mr. and Mrs. David M. Tobey Gift, 2012
  • Object Number: 2012.17
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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Nôtre Dame de Paris, Victor Hugo French, Book Illustrated with ca. 200 etchings and wood engravings on china paper; 352 pp.
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1877
Ceramic Horn, Glazed pottery, French
Ceramic Horn
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late 18th or early 19th century
Prose on the Trans-Siberian Railway and of the Little Jehanne of France by Blaise Cendrars, Sonia Delaunay French, born Ukraine, Color stencil print (pochoir) with brush applied watercolor, gouache, and printing ink on four joined sheets of imitation Japan paper, accordion-folded
Prose on the Trans-Siberian Railway and of the Little Jehanne of France by Blaise Cendrars
Sonia Delaunay
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The Hanged Man, Victor Hugo French, Brush and ink wash on wove paper
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Édouard Manet, Seated, Holding His Hat, Edgar Degas French, Graphite and black chalk
Édouard Manet, Seated, Holding His Hat
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Sitter Edouard Manet
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