Idbury Prints: An online gallery of original fine art prints

VICTOR HUGO (French / 1802-1885)

Victor-Marie Hugo is best-known, of course, as a novelist, the author poems, plays, and novels including Les Misérables. But Victor Hugo was also a keen draughtsman; many of his drawings can be seen in the Maison de Victor Hugo in the Place des Vosges. Victor Hugo was a hero figure for French etchers. Richard Lesclide, editor of the journal Paris à l'eau-forte, and subsequently Hugo's secretary, pronounced Hugo the greatest etcher of the century. He argued that "It is not necessary, to be a great etcher before God, to produce etchings." Paris à l'eau-forte filled this gap by commissioning the great etcher Henri Guérard to produce two etchings from drawings by Victor Hugo, made while Hugo was working on his novel Quatre-vingt-treize. Besides these works after Hugo, we also possess several etchings by Dr Paul Gachet inspired by an evening at Victor Hugo's house in the Place des Vosges. This house is now a museum.