Victor Hugo
1829
Medium
lithograph on chine collé
Dimensions
sheet: 46.6 × 33.1 cm (18 3/8 × 13 1/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
Accession Number
2017.13.5
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of French Romanticism with Achille Devéria's *Victor Hugo* (1829), a lithograph on chineé now housed in the National Gallery Art. This portrait captures the young Victor Hugo, the literary sensation whose works like *Hernani* igniting passions and challenging classical norms just a year earlier. Devéria, a master of Romantic portraiture known for his elegant depictions of writers, artists, and society figures, immortalizes Hugo at age 27, on the cusp of his enduring fame as the author of *Les Misérables* and champion of social justice. Printed on delicate Chinese p...
About the Artist
Achille Devéria · 1800–1857
Achille Jacques-Jean-Marie Devéria (1800–1857) was a French painter and lithographer whose prolific output and sophisticated portrait work made him one of the most important visual chroniclers of French Romantic culture. Born in Paris on February 6, 1800, Devéria came of age during the Restoration period and became closely associated with the Romantic movement that dominated French arts and letter...