Hugo, Victor (1802-1885)
Le vieux pont (The Old Bridge)
1866
Pen, ink, wash and watercolor, 31.5 x 49.3 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris
From 1834, when he went to the north of France and Belgium – where he returned every year until 1837 – Hugo noted his impressions in notebooks, drawing and recounting everything at the same time, his imagination pushing him generally to transform the observation of the moment. A probable memory of one of the trips to the Rhine region, this masterful sheet, dedicated to his grandson, where the picturesque rises to a sort of terrible extravagance, presents a theme which frequently recurs in the drawings of the writer from the 1860s. (‘Souvenirs de voyages’, 1992). Figure dans G. Picon, R. Cornaille & G. Herscher, ‘Victor Hugo dessinateur’, Paris, Ed. du Minotaure, 1963, n°291, repr. Figure dans G. Picon, L. Focillon, Ge. Picon & R. Bargiel, ‘Victor Hugo dessins’, Paris, Gallimard, 1985, n°280, repr. Figure dans ‘Victor Hugo au musée : dessins et souvenirs (Besançon 1802 – Paris 1885)’, cat. exp. Besançon, musée des Beaux-Arts, 28 avril – 13 juin 1985, n° XVII, repr. (Louvre)