HUGO, Victor (1802-1885)

HUGO, Victor (1802-1885)

Original print by Valentin Guillon
Period albumen print mounted on stiff cardboard
[Guernsey, summer 1878], 15.5 × 23 cm
Print: 15.5 × 23 cm
Inscription: 3 × 25 cm
Frame: 33.5 × 42 cm

Touching portrait of Victor Hugo, surrounded by his family and close circle in the garden of Hauteville House, in the summer of 1878.

Large print enhanced with an autograph dedication by the poet

Albumen print mounted under a mat in a period gilt frame, enhanced with a lengthy autograph dedication signed by Victor Hugo:
« Veuillez agréer Madame, avec votre bonté ordinaire, mes empressements et mes hommages. Victor Hugo »

Identified in this image, from left to right: Julie Chenay, his sister-in-law (née Foucher); Madame Aline Ménard-Dorian (future mother-in-law of Georges Hugo); her daughter Pauline Ménard-Dorian (future wife of Georges Hugo); Édouard Lockroy (second husband of Alice Hugo); Alice Lockroy, née Lehaene (widow of Charles Hugo); Georges and Jeanne Hugo, children of Charles Hugo and Alice; Victor Hugo; Juliette Drouet; and Richard Lesclide.

Hugo suffered a health episode (possibly a cerebral congestion) in June 1878. In the following weeks, he returned to his place of exile in Guernsey, at Hauteville House. This decline in health effectively brought an end to his literary activity.