Astonishing things : the drawings of Victor Hugo / exhibition curators, Sarah Lea ; with Rose Thompson.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Hugo, Victor, 1802-1885

Lea, Sarah, curator.

Thompson, Rose (Curator), curator.

Royal Academy of Arts (Great Britain), host institution.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hugo, Victor, 1802-1885--Exhibitions.

Hugo, Victor.

Drawing--Exhibitions.

Drawing.

Physical Description:

169 pages : illustrations ; 28 cm

Distribution:

New York : ARTBOOK/D.A.P

Place of Publication:

London : Royal Academy of Arts, 2025.

Summary:

"Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was a leading public figure in 19th-century France. His books Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame were printed worldwide. As both a poet and a politician, during his nearly twenty-year exile in the Channel Islands, he came to symbolise the ideals of the French republic: equality and freedom. In private, his refuge was drawing. Hugo's ink and wash visions of imaginary castles, monsters and seascapes are as poetic as his writing. His works inspired Romantic and Symbolist poets, and many artists including the Surrealists. Vincent van Gogh compared them to "astonishing things". This exhibition follows Hugo's preoccupation with drawing, from his early caricatures and travel drawings to his dramatic landscapes and his experiments with abstraction. It features some of his finest works on paper, which are rarely on public display and were last seen in the UK over 50 years ago."--Royal Academy of Arts website.

Notes:

First published on the occasion of the exhibition Astonishing Things: The Drawings of Victor Hugo, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 21 March - 29 June 2025.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781915815118

1915815118

OCLC:

1458753070

Publisher Number:

CIPO000203111