Bust of Victor Hugo

Bust of Victor Hugo
Artist Auguste Rodin
Year 1883
Medium patinated plaster
Dimensions 57.6 cm × 26.9 cm × 27.7 cm (22.7 in × 10.6 in × 10.9 in)
Location Museo Soumaya, Mexico City

The Bust of Victor Hugo is an 1883 patinated plaster sculpture by the French artist Auguste Rodin of the Romantic writer Victor Hugo. It is now in the Museo Soumaya in Mexico City.

In 1883 the journalist Edmond Bazire advised Rodin to cement his reputation by producing a portrait of a notable personality. Rodin thus approached Hugo[1] - he agreed to sittings but refused to sit for longer than 30 minutes. However, he did invite Rodin to stand in the porch of Hugo's house on Avenue d'Eylau in Paris to make additional drawings from a distance whilst Hugo worked in his living room.[2] He made these drawings from different angles between February and April 1883, capturing a range of different angles and expressions.[3] He later made frontal and three-quarter-view engravings.[4]

The work in Mexico is the first version of the work, cast in bronze in June 1884 and exhibited at the Paris Salon.[2] Rodin continued to refine the image, producing a second version in 1884 and refining the 1883 work until 1885, around the time of Hugo's death. Rodin used a larger version of the 1883 work to produce his Monument to Victor Hugo in 1887.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Victor Hugo, known as the Bust to the Illustrious Master". Musée Rodin. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  2. 1 2 "El Busto de Victor Hugo" (in Portuguese). Museo Gulbenkian. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  3. 1 2 (in Spanish) Museo Soumaya. México: Fundación Carlos Slim. 2015. p. 88. ISBN 9786077805137.
  4. ↑ "Victor Hugo de tres cuartos" (in Spanish). Musée Rodin. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
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