Writing on walls, or Victor Hugo's language at Hauteville House

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Victor Hugo's means of expression

Hugo was a writer whose written creation expressed itself in the shape of plays, poems, novels, critiques. These were either developed and huge in a way comparable to massive rivers flowing, giving the impression the flow could last for ever, or like tiny drops in the form of thousands of notes and drafts which can be very light in tone or on the contrary extremely powerful and meaningful.

He wrote a lot and, as early as his twenties, became famous. His popularity kept developing until after his death to finally give him the status of icon, so that he is thought of as a representative of French literature. As a consequence the other sides of his creation were overlooked for a very long time.

But Victor Hugo was not only a writer expressing himself with words, he was also a drawer and a painter composing with lines, dots, stains, washes, scratches - using all sorts of material, brushes, quills, pieces of lace, of papers, or coins used as stencils, gouache, ink, charcoal, coffee, etc. His graphic creation, far from being secondary, forms a good collection ranging from compositions evoking visionary or dream scenes; purely formal and abstract pieces that are very contemporary and even timeless in style, to political caricatures, or little comic faces quickly drawn for his grandchildren Jeanne and Georges (they would find them at lunchtime hidden under their napkin). In another vein a group of faithful pencil illustrations of town monuments made during his travels in North Europe (Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, etc.) included in letters to his wife and friends show accomplished drawing technique.

As for the Hugolian graphic and decorative inspiration, some illustration of it is present at Hauteville House itself. A mirror frame in the stairs leading to Hugo’s private part of the house, and the piece of wood at the base of the glass panel installed in the look-out floor at the top of the house show a very colourful and delicate floral ornament which seems to have been one of his favourite patterns as he often used it to decorate the frames of his painted compositions too.

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