Astonishing Things

The Drawings of Victor Hugo

Gérard Audinet, Thomas Cazentre, Sarah Lea , Rose Thompson

$85

Hardback

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English

Royal Academy of Arts
01 June 2025

Art & Architecture; Drawing & drawings; Exhibition catalogues & specific collections

Novelist, poet and politician, Victor Hugo (18021885) was a towering figure in French 19th-century public life. The author of Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame became a symbol of the French Republic's ideals of equality and freedom during his long exile in the Channel Islands. His ink-and-wash visions of imaginary castles, monsters and seascapes may be less well known than his writings, but they inspired Romantic and Symbolist poets, and many artists including the Surrealists; Vincent van Gogh compared them to 'astonishing things'.

This handsome book the catalogue of an exhibition organised by the Royal Academy of Arts in collaboration with Paris Musées Maison de Victor Hugo and the Bibliothèque nationale de France includes new texts by leading authorities on Hugo and reproductions of many of his finest works on paper, from early caricatures and travel drawings to dramatic landscapes and experiments in abstraction.

AUTHORS: Gérard Audinet is Director of the Maisons de Victor Hugo in Paris/Guernsey. Thomas Cazentre is Chargé de collections: manuscrits modernes et contemporains at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris. Sarah Lea is Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Rose Thompson is Assistant Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.

SELLING POINTS: .

Discover the imaginary worlds of Victor Hugo, one of France's most famous writers, with his rarely-seen works on paper .

Published to accompany an exhibition at the Royal Academy, 21 March 29 June 2025

By: Gérard Audinet, Thomas Cazentre, Sarah Lea, Rose Thompson
Imprint: Royal Academy of Arts
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 270mm, Width: 230mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 1.058kg
ISBN: 9781915815118
ISBN 10: 1915815118
Pages: 172
Publication Date: 01 June 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Unspecified

Gérard Audinet is Director of the Maisons de Victor Hugo in Paris/Guernsey. Thomas Cazentre is Chargé de collections: manuscrits modernes et contemporains at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris. Sarah Lea is Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Rose Thompson is Assistant Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.

Reviews for Astonishing Things: The Drawings of Victor Hugo

Review of the exhibition: ""... the Royal Academy does something unexpectedly moving. It takes you into the secret heart of a man we tend to think of only as a classic."" - The Guardian