What the author of Les Misérables did when he wasn’t writing

French giant of literature, Victor Hugo, turns out to be a passionate artist

Victor Hugo, Octopus, 1866–69. Brown ink and wash and graphite on paper, 24 x 20.7 cm. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits

What is your true calling? Victor Hugo thought his was art. Known as ‘the man of the century’ by the French, Hugo was a poet, novelist and politician. As the author of Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, his writing prowess gained him a world-wide reputation, but his foray into visual art – his real passion – is less well known.

Have you come across Les Misérables? The book, the film or maybe the show aka Les Mis – it has been around for 40 years and is now the longest running musical in the West End. Not only is the story of the musical based on Hugo’s book, but the set design is inspired by his drawings! And so, almost a century after his death in 1885 Hugo’s two creative sides – and his active political position – were united under one roof.

Victor Hugo, The Town of Vianden, with Stone Cross, 1871. Brown and black ink, brown and purple wash, graphite and varnish on paper, 25 x 34.5 cm. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits

Astonishing Things: the Drawings of Victor Hugo, now open at the Royal Academy, shines a light on the author’s illustrative sideline by bringing to London – for the first time in 50 years – a small, but remarkable, selection of his drawings out of over 4000 that he made in his lifetime.

The exhibition rooms are dimly lit, creating an intimate atmosphere for the fragile artworks. Once the exhibition closes, the drawings will have to be quarantined in the dark for a long period to help preserve them.

Victor Hugo, The Town of Vianden Seen Through a Spider’s Web, 1871. Brown ink and wash, and blue watercolour over graphite on paper, 25.5 x 30.3 cm. Maisons de Victor Hugo, Paris / Guernsey. Photo: CCØ Paris Musées / Maisons de Victor Hugo

Still the pieces require close examination. Hugo used many different techniques, but his favourite was working with ink. It seems to have been a natural continuation of his writing, however there is no indication that these two creative endeavours were closely related. His drawings were not illustrations for his writing, but artworks in their own right.

During Hugo’s lifetime, his drawings were mostly kept private and known only to his close circle of family and friends. He dismissed them as ‘just things on the margins’, but as this show demonstrates, those margins were very large indeed. The curator of the show, Sarah Lea, considers them ‘another space for exploration and freedom of thought’ for the celebrated author.

Victor Hugo, The Cheerful Castle, c. 1847. Pen, brown and black ink and wash, crayon on cardboard, 15.8 x 22.2 cm. Maisons de Victor Hugo, Paris / Guernsey. Photo: CCØ Paris Musées / Maisons de Victor Hugo

The show is arranged thematically, as Hugo returned to similar subjects throughout his life. His favourite themes were historic architecture, such as castles and cathedrals, and nature, in particular seascapes. He was also very interested in experimental abstract drawing.

The drawings also vary a great deal in the ways in which he made them. From minute details, such as depictions of a spider on one hand, or a gothic cathedral, to large blots of diluted ink in works intentionally made without deliberate control. Recognisable buildings on some drawings, fantastical creatures on others. There was a clear political message in images of a hanged man, and perhaps a hidden significance in a drawing of a mushroom.

Victor Hugo, Mushroom, 1850. Pen, brown ink and wash, charcoal, crayon, green, red and white gouache on paper, 47.4 x 60.8 cm. Maisons de Victor Hugo, Paris / Guernsey. Photo: CCØ Paris Musées / Maisons de Victor Hugo

The enigmatic mushroom in question is a giant, poisonous specimen with a thinly disguised face, which is drawn in such a way that it towers over the landscape behind it. In his later writings, Hugo used metaphor to talk about politicians, likening some to oak trees, others to toadstools (it seems times change, people don’t). This could be an explanation for this fungus that thinks it’s a tree. To me, considering all other things that Hugo has predicted (e.g. creation of the EU – he called it the United States of Europe; and the abolition of capital punishment), it looks too much like an atomic mushroom cloud.

Certainly, Hugo was ahead of his time. His obsession with castles reveals his interest in the conservation of historic architecture. For him, architecture was a great book on mankind before print came into being.

Victor Hugo, The Lighthouse at Casquets, Guernsey, 1866, Brown ink and wash, black crayon, black chalk and white gouache on paper, 89.8 x 48 cm. Photo: CCØ Paris Musées / Maison de Victor Hugo

Hugo spent almost 20 years in exile, much of it in Guernsey, where he wrote Les Misérables. Living at Hauteville House allowed him to let another side of his multifaceted imagination free: he fully designed the house – with an eclectic choice of furnishings and decorations, as well as a glass conservatory on top. If architecture can be seen as writing, Hauteville House is Hugo’s other book.

My favourite work in the show is an ink drawing called Taches-Planètes. One of the larger works, it features two circles surrounded by free-flowing pools or stains (taches) of ink. The title suggests planets. My imagination can only stretch as far as moons in a cloudy sky, but in Hugo’s mind they were distant planets surrounded by an intangible space. The work is peculiarly abstract for the time and, while it can be explained by the artist’s interest in then-popular uncontrolled drawing techniques, it seems very modern in its execution.

Victor Hugo, Taches-Planètes, c. 1850, brown ink and wash on paper, Musée de Louvre, Paris, Département des Arts Graphiques. Photo Tiesennotes.

The question remains though, how do we view these works? Hugo separated his two creative talents, but can we? I find it difficult to perceive these drawings as visual images devoid of their link to the famous person that created them. Will you be going to this show, because the drawings are so extraordinary, or because these curious drawings were made by Victor Hugo – the author?

Victor Hugo, Mirror with Birds, 1870. Hand-painted and inscribed wooden frame, oil paint, varnish, 70 x 65 cm. Maisons de Victor Hugo, Paris / Guernsey. Photo: CCØ Paris Musées / Maisons de Victor Hugo

I certainly went because they are by Hugo. By the time I left, these works made me admire the multi-talented man even more, but also, they made me reconsider the act of art making itself.

Drawing allowed Hugo freedom from the world of words that made him famous. He did not have to be a famous artist too, so he let himself be free with drawing. It is this quality that makes each of these artworks so fascinating. What would you do if you did not have to prove anything?

Royal Academy of Arts, Astonishing Things: The Drawings of Victor Hugo, 21 March - 29 June 2025

Exhibition organised by the Royal Academy of Arts in collaboration with Paris Musées – Maison de Victor Hugo and the Bibliothèque nationale de France.