Sketch Book for the Artist

EARTH

AND

THE

ELEMENTS

Storms

STORMS CAN BE SEEN and drawn in two ways: first, as

a subject and second, as a gestural storm on the paper.

The very nature of both is turmoil and an interweaving

of elements, inks, marks, water, and tossed objects—

a perfect subject in which artists can forget themselves, grab

their brush, ink, or charcoal, and swim into the page.

The menacing darkness of Hugo's storm below is so

convincing, it is difficult to contemplate its brooding and

night-soaked heart. He brings us to stare into a place

that no sane human would enter. Opposite, Leonardos

Cloudburst of Material Possessions is one of his most

enigmatic and mysterious works. It looks so contemporary,

as if drawn just this year. Domestic objects we can own

and name fall from the clouds, lines of rain escorting them

to bounce and clatter. An update on biblical showers of

fish and frogs, this is a bombardment from our homes.

VICTOR HUGO

French novelist and artist (see also p.28). In periods

between writing, drawing was Hugo's principal means

of expression. His subjects include ruins, fantasy

palaces, haunted shadows, and the sea studied

from his home in Guernsey in the Channel Islands.

Pen and brush Hugo drew first with pen and ink, composing

banks of waves and dense, active surfaces of water. Then, with a

brush, he blanketed the drawing in darkness, leaving nothing but

a glimpse of moonlight glistening on the froth below. Turner

(see p.198) admires the majesty of nature. By contrast, this

is a writer's narrative of terror.

Le Bateau-Vision

1864

71 / 2 x 10 in (192 x 255 mm)

VICTOR HUGO