À Victor Hugo 1889

Curator: Henri Fantin-Latour created this etching in 1889, a tribute to Victor Hugo. The print is an elegy, really. What springs to mind for you when you look at it? Editor: It feels like a memory, fragmented and dreamlike. All those dark, scribbled lines – like shadows obscuring something precious. Is that grief I'm seeing etched there? Curator: I think so. The figure at the bottom, veiled in shadow, seems to represent mourning. She's positioned at the foot of, I think, a sarcophagus, a monument. The other figure standing above… Editor: …She’s powerful! Raising what looks like a torch or maybe palm fronds. Almost Grecian. And that trumpet! Is she announcing Hugo’s arrival in the afterlife? What do those symbols represent to you? Curator: I see the torch as enlightenment. The palm, traditionally, as victory. Both are about immortality. This whole piece is composed as if to echo the tension between earthly loss and enduring artistic legacy. The figure kneeling beside the sarcophagus is an earthy presence of grief, while the other proclaims Hugo's impact remains untouched by mortality, don’t you think? It feels like he is straddling romanticism and symbolism in this print. Editor: Absolutely! The symbols resonate deeply, transcending their literal meanings. It’s about the emotional weight they carry—a collective memory of grief, triumph, and remembrance, all woven into the image. And consider the placement of Victor Hugo's name in the upper field, right above her head. The placement suggests apotheosis, in a way. Curator: Exactly, and there’s a gentleness in its rendering. Like Hugo is somehow receiving the recognition. I suppose, what sticks with me is the visual representation of time; how past present and future seem so intertwined in this single moment. Editor: For me, it's the endurance of symbols. How they continually remind us that even in the face of death, certain powerful imagery has an immortal quality.