722
were prosecuted in 1851 on political grounds. After
having been jailed at the Conciergerie, they left France,
to meet their father who having been banished by Na-
poleon the Third, had fl ed secretly to Brussels. Thence,
the road of exile took them to Jersey (1852–1855) and
Guernsey after 1855.
During their exile, at least until 1855, the Hugos
brothers’ main interest was photography. Most of the
pictures are kept in Bibliothèque Nationale de France,
Maison de Victor Hugo, Musée d’Orsay, (Paris, France),
and partly in Musée de Victor Hugo (Villequier,
France).
Later, they undertook literary activities. Charles
wrote novels (Le Cochon de Saint-Antoine, in 1856, La
Bohême dorée in 1859, in 1860, La Famille tragique),
plays (Je vous aime in 1861), or travel writing (such as
La Liberté, a journey with his father in 1867). François-
Victor, starting with the translation of the Shakespearean
Sonnets (1857) and Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus (1858),
devoted himself to the entire work written by Shake-
speare from 1859 to 1866.
Charles settled in Brussels in 1861; François-Victor
joined him with their mother Adèle, after his fi ancée
died in Guernsey in 1865. In 1869, the Hugos brothers
founded along with Vacquerie, Meurice and Rochefort
a new political publication, called Le Rappel, clearly
fi ghting the imperial regime and its censorship. As a
result, the brothers were fi ned and sentenced to jail
several times. Charles married Alice Lehaene (1865) in
Brussels, and fathered the two beloved Victor Hugo’s
grandchildren, Georges (1868) and Jeanne (1869). He
died in Bordeaux, a few months after the collapse of the
empire and the proclamation of the French Republic.
François-Victor died two years later, in Paris.
See also: Bacot, Edmond ; Daguerreotype; Wet
Collodion Negative; Albumen Print; Salted Paper
Print; and Vacquerie, Auguste.
Further Reading
Lacan, Ernest, “Vues de Jersey par MM. Hugo frères et Auguste
Vacquerie,” in La Lumière, no. 41, 8 Octobre 1853.
Hugo, François-Victor, La Normandie inconnue, Paris: Pagnerre,
1857.
Hugo, Charles, Chez Victor Hugo, par un passant, Paris: Cadard
et Luquet, 1864.
Hugo, Charles, Les Hommes de l’Exil, précédé de Mes Fils par
Victor Hugo, Paris: Lemerre, 1875.
Blondel, Madeleine ; Georgel, Pierre, ed., Victor Hugo et les
images (colloque), Dijon: aux amateurs de livres, 1989.
Gaudon, Sheila, “Victor Hugo et la photographie: les débuts de
l’atelier photographique de Jersey (1855),” Bérénice, no. 7,
1995, 11–23.
Robb, Graham, Victor Hugo, London: Picador, 1997.
Heilbrun, Françoise, Molinari Danielle (ed.), En collaboration
avec le soleil, Victor Hugo, photographies de l’exil, Paris:
RMN, 1998.
Stevens, Philip, Victor Hugo in Jersey, Chichester: Phillimore
& Co, [1985], 2002.
Prévost, Marie-Laure ed., L’Homme Océan, Paris: BNF, 2004.HUMBERT DE MOLARD, BARON
LOUIS-ADOLPHE (1800–1874)
Photographer
Humbert de Molard was born on 30 October 1800 in
Paris, to a family originating from the Calvados region
of lower Normandy. His father, Jean-Claude-François
Humbert, was a career offi cer in army who became a
baron in 1809, adopting the particle “de Molard” late in
life. Very little is known about his mother, Marie-Louise
Luce Justine Robillard. Although his parents lived their
fi nal days at the château d’Argentelle, near Manerbe, it
seems that Humbert de Molard’s childhood was spent
in the environs of Paris.
Few things are known about the fi rst thirty years of
Humbert de Molard’s life. It appears that he studied law
for a time, but it is not known if he fi nished this course of
study or not. He was reputed to be quite a prestidigitator
in Parisian circles, impressing people with his command
of sleight-of-hand tricks—and perhaps forming a useful
background for later photographic practices. He also
appears to have been a skilled wood-worker.
In his youth, Humbert de Molard worked for his
uncle, Louis-Marc-Antoine Robillard d’Argentelle, a
former naval offi cer who had created a collection col-
ored wax reproductions of tropical plants. Humbert de
Molard was charged with maintaining and restoring the
wax reproductions, which were exhibited at his uncle’s
house in what came to be known as the “carporamic
museum.” Upon his uncle’s death in 1828, Humbert
de Molard took charge of the collection, giving guided
tours to visitors and eventually reestablishing it at his
Parisian apartment in 1833. Much later, in 1853, he
sold the collection to the Parisian Muséum d’Histoire
Naturelle [Museum of Natural History], located at the
Jardin des Plantes [Botanical Gardens].
In 1832, Humbert de Molard married Constance-
Clara Saint-Jean de Montfranc. The couple had two
children, Louise Marie Julie Humbert de Molard, born
in 1832, and Gabriel Charles Claude Adolphe Humbert
de Molard, born in 1834, both of whom he would later
photograph.
His wife having died in 1841, in 1843, Humbert de
Molard married Henriette Renée Patu, a talented min-
iaturist, lithographer, and landowner from Lagny, in the
fertile Aube region east of Paris. He and his children
relocated to Lagny, where as a landowner affi liated with
his wife’s family, he became quite wealthy. His second
marriage also coincided with his taking up photogra-
phy, which was to become a consuming passion for