Souvenir of a Castle in Vosges

Victor Hugo

1857 · Brush and iron gall washes, pen and iron gall ink, white gouache; outline of castle obtained by using a paper stencil · Drawings and Prints

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.

Artist

Victor Hugo

Date

1857

Medium

Brush and iron gall washes, pen and iron gall ink, white gouache; outline of castle obtained by using a paper stencil

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, Donald Young Foundation Gift, Harry G. Sperling Fund, and Mr. and Mrs. David M. Tobey Gift, 2012