Dawn Images

French writer Victor Hugo is famous for penning The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Miserables, but less known is his work as an illustrator — now the subject of a new exhibition in London.

Astonishing Things: The Drawings of Victor Hugo, which opened at the Royal Academy of Arts on Friday, traces Hugo’s passion for illustration, 140 years after his death.

The exhibition’s notes say that while the Romantic author and politician came to be a leading public figure in France in the 19th century, “in private, his refuge was drawing”.

“Hugo’s ink and wash visions of imaginary castles, monsters and seascapes are as poetic as his writing,” according to the Royal Academy of Arts.

“His works inspired Romantic and Symbolist poets, and many artists including the Surrealists. Vincent van Gogh compared them to ‘astonishing things’.”

Originally published in Dawn, March 24th, 2025