Sketch Book for the Artist

ANIMALS

Presence and Mood

THESE DRAWINGS HAVE BEEN CHOSEN to show two very

different ways of picturing a wild animal. Hugo mixed his

media and drew from memory and imagination to create

narrative atmosphere. By contrast, Gericault took a sharp

pencil to make repeated direct observations from life.

Hugo's page is flooded with the fearful presence of a

remembered octopus. As if disturbed from its gritty bed

by our presence and curiosity, the ominous beast unwinds

from the dark of the sea and of our nightmares. Apparently

drawn in its own ink, it silently rises to the light, conjured

by the hand of a great author of French literary fiction.

Gericault's sheet appears almost scratched by the

ferocious play of his cat. He has watched her pounce,

snarl, and turn, drawing her again and again to pin down

the texture of her loose skin, her bony frame, her sharp

teeth, and her distinctive temperament.

VICTOR HUGO

Poet, novelist, playwright,

and leader of the French

Romantic movement. Hugo's

novels Les Miserables and

The Hunchback of Notre

Dame have become classics

of film and stage. His copious

drawings are characterized

by mixed media, drama, and

a love of accident.

Layers and shadows Throughout

this drawing, linseed oil soaked

into the paper has made shadows

and repelled the ink to create

translucent tentacles. The octopus

is formed in layers applied and

distressed with a brush. Surrounding

sprays of graphite powder are stuck

into washes of oil and ink to

suggest glutinous depths.

Mixed media Here, Hugo used

graphite powder, ink and linseed

oil on paper. He wrote to poet and

art critic Charles-Pierre Baudelaire

about his experiments, saying

"... I've ended up mixing in pencil,

charcoal, sepia, coal dust, soot,

and all sorts of bizarre concoctions

which manage to convey more

or less what I have in view, and

above all in mind...".

Pieuvre

1866-69

91 / 2 x 81 / 8 in (242 x 207 mm)

VICTOR HUGO