In his dark, visionary drawings and watercolors, Victor Hugo (1802–1885) sought responses to the political developments and social unrest of his epoch. He dripped or blew ink onto his paper, used decalcomania or color washes, and integrated his inky fingerprints into his compositions. The prints thus created are astonishingly modern, and the Surrealists hailed them as predecessors of their own aesthetic.
On his travels—along the Rhine, for instance—Hugo also produced many traditional vedutas. During his years in exile on Jersey and Guernsey, he created a large number of Romantic seascapes. Later, when he was briefly a member of the National Assembly, he drew caricatures in which his sharp quill captured the weaknesses of his subjects.
This volume presents selected prints, linking them to Hugo’s body of written work and referring to Goethe to shed light on Hugo’s reception. It also contains a groundbreaking essay on Arnulf Rainer’s overpainting of Hugo’s drawings.
 
 
Exhibition schedule: Schiller Museum, Weimar, May 16–July 27, 2008