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Lot Essay
This drawing will be included in the catalogue raisonné of drawings by Victor Hugo being prepared under the direction of Pierre Georgel.
Théophile Gautier summarized Victor Hugo's drawings' force with these words: "If he wasn't a poet, Victor Hugo would be a first-class painter. He stands out in bringing together, but with a somber and darker fantasy, the effects of chiaroscuro seen in Goya or the terror expressed by some of Piranesi's architectures. In the midst of threatening shadows, he knows how to sketch a ray of moonlight or lightning, to bring to life the towers of a demolished burg [...] Many decorators would envy his incredible capacity of creating donjons, old streets, castles and churches in ruins; an out of the ordinary style, an unknown architecture, that is full of love and mistery, whose appearance oppresses like a nightmare" (see Dessins de Victor Hugo, P. Georgel, ed., exh. cat. Villequier-Paris, 1971-1972, p. 22).
Théophile Gautier summarized Victor Hugo's drawings' force with these words: "If he wasn't a poet, Victor Hugo would be a first-class painter. He stands out in bringing together, but with a somber and darker fantasy, the effects of chiaroscuro seen in Goya or the terror expressed by some of Piranesi's architectures. In the midst of threatening shadows, he knows how to sketch a ray of moonlight or lightning, to bring to life the towers of a demolished burg [...] Many decorators would envy his incredible capacity of creating donjons, old streets, castles and churches in ruins; an out of the ordinary style, an unknown architecture, that is full of love and mistery, whose appearance oppresses like a nightmare" (see Dessins de Victor Hugo, P. Georgel, ed., exh. cat. Villequier-Paris, 1971-1972, p. 22).