Black crayon on cream wove paper, circa 1900. 100x168 mm; 4x6 3/4 inches. With the artist's initials ink stamp, lower right recto (Lugt 1223b).
Provenance: Estate of the artist, Paris; Hector Brame, Paris; private collection, Paris; private collection, New York; private collection, Chicago.
Victor-Hugo (1868-1925) was the grandson of the French Romantic writer and politician Victor Hugo (1802-1885). Victor-Hugo's father died when his son was a toddler and he was placed in the custody his famous grandfather, who wrote about the experience in his celebrated collection of poems L'Art d'être grand-père, 1877. Victor-Hugo studied at the Janson-de-Sailly high school in Paris and apprenticed with the genre artist Ernest Ange Duez. He later joined the French Navy and in 1896, published a collection of memoirs regarding his naval experiences. During World War I, he enlisted and while at the front lines made numerous drawings of trench scenes which were exhibited at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. He married in 1894 in Paris and was the father of Jean Hugo (1894-1984) who would also pursue a successful career as an artist.
