An Amusement Between Verses – the Art of Victor Hugo

Town with tumbledown bridge, 1847; pen, brown-ink wash, black crayon, watercolour and stencil on vellum paper, partly scraped (137 x 209 mm)In France, Victor Hugo (1802-1885) is by some considered the greatest French poet. To the rest of the world, he is most well-known for his novels Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

But he was in fact also a great artist. It was many years ago now that I discovered this by chance: I was in a suburban department store, accompanying my sister while she shopped, and picked up a catalogue of his works on paper in the books department. I had never seen his drawings, and he was an equally serendipitous discovery for my then-boyfriend, who was not only an artist himself, but a collector. We were both thrilled by the delicate beauty and sheer breadth of Hugo’s graphic work (numbering nearly 3000 items).

The book, Shadows of a Hand – The Drawings of Victor Hugo, accompanied an exhibition of the same name that was held at The Drawing Centre, New York, from April 16–June 13, 1998.

Hugo worked mainly in ink, but he was known to import all sorts of bizarre matter into his drawings. Often he employed many mediums at once, and rubbed and scraped back the surface. The resulting drawings have an exciting texture and depth. Hugo writes to Baudelaire, on April 29, 1860:

“I’m very happy and very proud that you should choose to think kindly of what I call my pen-and-ink drawings. I’ve ended up mixing in pencil, charcoal, sepia, coal dust, soot and all sorts of bizarre concoctions which manage to convey more or less what I have in view, and above all in mind. It keeps me amused between two verses.”

Castle lit up in the night, 1856; pen, brown-ink wash and black ink over rubbed charcoal on laid paper (138 x 188 mm)Hugo’s drawing techniques were extremely unusual. One of the fullest accounts is by his son, Charles Hugo:

“Once paper, pen and ink-well have been brought to the table, Victor Hugo sits down and without making a preliminary sketch, without any apparent preconception, sets about drawing with an extraordinarily sure hand not the landscape as a whole but any old detail. He will begin his forest with the branch of a tree, his town with a gable, his gable with a weather vane, and, little by little, the entire composition will emerge from the blank paper with the precision and clarity of a photographic negative subjected to the chemical preparation that brings out the picture. That done, the draftsman will ask for a cup and will finish off his landscape with a light shower of black coffee. The result is an unexpected and powerful drawing that is often strange, always personal, and recalls the etchings of Rembrandt and Piranesi.”

I find his drawings so atmospheric they also bring to mind the painter William Turner.

Sunset by the sea, c. 1852–55; grey-ink wash and stencil on grey-tinted paper (86 x 231 mm)Cloud over a field, c. 1854–56?; brush and brown-ink wash on beige paper (215 x 284 mm)Steeple taches, c. 1856?; Brown- and blue-ink wash with highlights of white gouache on beige paper (80 x 80 mm)Apart from ink washes, Hugo also experimented with ink taches (ink blots which are manipulated with excess water, smearing and smudging); pliages (symmetrical taches, formed by folding the paper); lace impressions (applying ink-soaked lace –often metallic, ie, wired – to paper); and stencils and cut-outs (combined with other drawing techniques and mediums).

Chandelier, c. 1850; pen and brown-ink wash on a verso of a letter folded down the middle (262 x 205 mm)Heraldic eagle, c. 1855; cut-out made from black, laid paper and mounted on vellum (195 x 133 mm)Study for an eagle for a coat of arms, c. 1855; soft charcoal, stencil, pen, brown-ink wash, black ink, blue ink and application of lace on vellum paper (297 x 229 mm)

”… little by little, the entire composition will emerge from the blank paper with the precision and clarity of a photographic negative …”
– Charles Hugo

Also a statesman and human rights activist, Hugo was exiled in 1851, after declaring Napoleon III a traitor to France. Much of Hugo’s work that he produced after this time is ‘distinguished either by their large formats, or by the use of mixed media in which reliance of chance is increasingly frequent’. His new trust in the occult lead to experimental ‘spirit-drawings’ made with table-turning, but other themes included the ocean; space, and the unkown; and dream-like, elusive reveries on nature.

It was difficult to choose my favourites from the book, but here is a small selection from some of these categories. Scroll down for more, and be inspired. (Click images for larger versions.)

Lace impressions, c. late 1855; two lace impressions in a single frame: (left) application of lace soaked in brown ink, rubbed charcoal and highlights of brown ink on cream paper (220 x 95 mm), (right) application of lace soaked in brown-ink wash, on blue paper (280 x 105 mm)’Old city‘ calling card, 1856; pen, brown-ink wash, applications of lace soaked in brown and black ink wash with highlights of red and gold gouache on bluish laid paperMushroom, c. 1850; pen, brown-ink wash, black ink, black crayon, charcoal, gouache, watercolour, fingerprints, reserves and stencil on paper, partly scraped and rubbed (474 x 608 mm)Renaissance architecture; Pen, brown-ink wash, black ink, gouache, graphite, black crayon, fingerprints and stencils (?) on vellum paper, partly rubbed (208 x 244 mm)Ruined aqueduct, c 1850; pen, brown-ink wash, black ink, graphite, black crayon, fingerprints and reserves on beige, gilt-edged vellum paper, partly rubbed [taches on verso], (249 x 329 mm)

The Ballet Russes

Ballet Russe souvenir program from 1914

I love the striped sleeves!Last week I hired a number of DVDs that had been on my list to watch for a while. The 2005 documentary The Ballet Russes was one of them. I was keen to learn about the set and costume designers of the Ballet Russe. There was little on them as it happened, but all the same I found the documentary fascinating and moving.

There was much of the history that I knew little or nothing about: Sergei Diaghilev’s ballet company came from young Russian dancers trained in Paris, exiled from Russia after the revolution of 1917. The director died in 1929, and after Diaghilev’s original Ballet Russe disbanded, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo was formed under a partnership. It in turn split in two, with one partner creating the Original Ballet Russe. It was this company that found its way to Australia during WWII.

The company’s productions created a world-wide sensation. It was a completely new style of ballet, with avant-garde sets, imaginative costumes, and extraordinary choreography and music. The company collaborated with many contemporary artists, including Matisse, Chanel, Picasso and Dalí. Much of the public did not understand it at first, and was outraged, but eventually the companies that toured the world during the War inspired a generation, and still do.

Karsavina as PetrouchkaThe Original Ballet Russe, at the Sydney Theatre Royal in1939-40Firebird costume by Léon Bakst

A Portuguese Passion

Classic blue and white tiles plaster Capala das Almas, a church on the Rua Santa Catarina in Porto, PortugalThe Portuguese love tiles. Their country is slathered in them. Fortunately, I happened to visit two of the cities that have the best on-the-street samples: Lisbon, and Porto. The latter particularly seems to be coated in blue and white tiles. Both cities’ churches and public buildings are adorned with massive swathes of tile.

It was the Moors, having picked it up from the Persians, who introduced the art in the 16th century. These were mainly floral and geometric based designs, as figurative designs are not an option for Muslim artists for religious reasons. After the Italian invention of majolica, in which colours are painted directly into wet clay over a layer of white enamel, the Portuguese went wild.

One reason for the proliferation of tiles in Lisbon was after the 1755 earthquake that destroyed much of the city, tiles were a cheap and practical solution for decoration as the citizens rebuilt. The Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements also inspired artists to create fantastic facades and interiors of shops, restaurants and residential buildings.

Azulejos continue to coat contemporary life.

Take a look at my gallery of this Portuguese Passion for some close-up examples of tiles, taken on the street, in 18th century palaces and in the Museu Nacional do Azulejo. (Credits provided where known.)

A magnificent fountain in Sintra, Portugal

Tutankhamun’s Artisans

Golden coffin, from the exhibition Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the PharoahsToday I finally made it to the Tutankhamun exhibition at the Melbourne Museum – and not before time, as it was the last day. I have always loved ancient history (I still have my grade 7 history book on the subject stored somewhere) and was fascinated to see artefacts from antiquity. But what I was really looking forward to seeing was the jewellery.

Disappointingly, there wasn’t so much of it, but what was there was spectacular. The craftsmanship of Tutankhamun’s jewellers is breathtaking, the pieces just gorgeous. So much painstaking detail went into the creation of these collars, pectorals (chest plates) and headdresses – what skill and patience is evidenced in their construction!

CollarThe pieces are of gold and precious stones, although glass and faience were often used in imitation of the rare lapis lazuli and turquoise – although undoubtedly no expense would be spared for the royal family.

Below is a painting depicting jewellers and metalworkers of the 18th Dynasty, from a fragment in the Theban tomb of Sobkhotep, a civil administrator from a district near Cairo. In the upper register, two men use bow-driven multiple drills to create red stone beads, probably of carnelian, which a third polishes on a wooden block. The figure on the left of the lower register assembles a decorative collar from a variety of materials. On the right, workers can be seen using blowpipes to stoke their charcoal fires, their silver and gold products displayed above them.

Image from ‘The Art of Egyptian Hieroglyphs', Hamlyn, 1997. Click for larger image.Scroll down to see more of the treasures found in Tutankhamun’s tomb.

Headdress; Tutankhamun was wearing this in his coffin Pectoral; blue skin indicated divinityFalcon collar

Sokolsky’s Bubbles

Over New York (New Jersey), 1963On Thursday at the theatre I was picture researching, preparing to present a concept for a photo shoot when I came across an intriguing photograph of a man inside a balloon, next to a girl on a couch. How did they do that, Amelia-Jane and I wondered. “Photoshop,” Amelia-Jane pronounced.

“Maybe,” I replied, “but I can show you some amazing 1960s fashion pictures of a girl in a bubble that was all done the old-fashioned way.”

On the Seine, 1963By Melvin Sokolsky, the photographs are taken in 1963, mostly around Paris (and some in New York) with the model Simone d’Allencourt. She floats in a bubble above the Seine, the streets of Paris, in the snowy forest; above the bemused and amused faces of ordinary Parisians. The images are absolutely awe-inspiring, and even more fantastic to know that absolutely no computer was employed to achieve these wonders.

She floats in a bubble above the Seine, the streets of Paris, in the snowy forest …

Bicycle Street, 1963In Trees, 1963Years ago I stumbled upon a monograph on his work, which I didn’t buy because it was very expensive. It is now out of print and used books are double the price! Then a few weeks ago I discovered the Sokolsky iPhone book app, which I promptly purchased for only a few dollars. It is beautiful to look at, but now I want an iPad to fully appreciate the pictures.

Detail of ’The Garden of Earthly Delights‘, by Hieronymous Bosch, 1510-15Fascinatingly, I read that Sokolsky was inspired by a most unlikely source – a Renaissance painting (left). Here’s what the photographer says about it:

"On my 14th birthday, my father took me to a bookstore and told me I could choose any book in the store. I came upon a book of paintings by Hieronymus Bosch and found myself spellbound by the detail of a man and a woman in a veined caul-like bubble growing from a strange plant. That image in the The Garden of Earthly Delights (1510-15) had a profound effect on me – it resulted in a recurring dream of seeing myself in a bubble floating across exotic landscapes."

I can imagine quite looking forward to going to bed as a child if I was going to have dreams like that!

Scroll down for more images, and click for larger versions.

With Chair, 1963After Delvaux, 1963Du Taxi, 1963Le Dragon, 1963