Victor Hugo's Dark Drawings at Royal Academy Reveal His Artistic Side

The Royal Academy of London presents 'Astonishing Things - The Drawings of Victor Hugo', an exhibition unveiling the graphic works of the French poet, novelist, and political figure (1802-1855). Hugo, a father of French Romanticism and knighted at 23 by King Charles X, faced personal tragedies including the death of his first child, a daughter's madness, and his brother Eugène's early death. Politically, he opposed the Bourbon restoration, campaigned against the death penalty, child labor (1847), and for universal suffrage and secular education (1850). Exiled after Napoleon III's self-proclamation in 1852, he refused amnesty in 1859 and settled at Hauteville House in Guernsey. His drawings, made with sepia ink and coffee stains, feature dark, turbulent imagery: a spider web trapping men (The Town of Vianden Seen Through a Spider's Web, 1871), a giant octopus gripping the cosmos (Octopus, 1866-69), a stormy sea off Guernsey (The Vision Ship, 1864-66), and a chain symbolizing bondage (Chain, 1870). Nature appears menacing with monstrous figures and gloomy landscapes. The exhibition highlights Hugo's social anxieties and introspective turmoil, offering contemporary reflections. His funeral drew two million people, and he was the first to be interred at the Panthéon after a night at the Arc de Triomphe.