Jean Hugo was a French artist, illustrator, theatre designer, and writer. He represented the styles of Cubism and Surrealism.
Background
Hugo was born in Paris, France, on November 19, 1894. Hugo was the great-grandson of Victor Hugo, a French poet, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and representative of the Romantic movement in France. Jean Hugo's grandfather, Charles Hugo, was a journalist, pioneer of early photographic techniques and a campaigner against the death penalty.
Jean Hugo was brought up in a lively artistic environment. His father, Georges Hugo, was a published writer and a respected painter. The artist's mother, Pauline Ménard-Dorian, was the daughter of Paul-François Ménard, Conseiller général and député of the Hérault department during the 1870s-1880s, and Aline Dorian, daughter of Pierre Frédéric Dorian, a minister of works during the siege of Paris.
Jean Hugo had a half-brother François Hugo. He designed limited-edition jewellery interpretations for Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Jean Cocteau and Coco Chanel during the 1920s.
Career
Jean Hugo is mainly known as the author of a great number of sketches and oil or gouache paintings, which are often small sized. He also created illustrations for books, designed theatre sets, and costumes as well as produced ceramics, murals, textile designs and stained glass windows. Hugo's first published illustration appeared in 1918. It was a monogram for La Sirène publishing house. Then he also illustrated Les Joues en Feu by Raymond Radiguet, Bernouard, in 1920; Pommes d'Anis by Francis Jammes, Emile-Paul, 1923; Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel by Jean Cocteau, NRF, and Les Amis Nouvel by Paul Morand, Au Sans Pareil, both in 1924; Roméo et Juliette by Shakespeare, Au Sans Pareil, in 1926, among others.
Jean Hugo’s paintings were unique in the artistic world of the 20th century. They maintained an authentic originality while recalling certain avant-garde themes of metaphysical painting or magical realism. At the start of the 1930s, in between various theatrical projects, including Jean Cocteau’s Les mariés de la Tour Eiffel, he produced a series of masterful artworks, such as Solitude (1933).
He was interested in forest scenes (L'Ermite de Meudon, 1933) and religious themes (La Cène, 1933). L'Imposteur (1931) and La Baie des Trépassés (1932) were produced in the same period. Many of his paintings were based on the sketches that he created all the time. He used to say that "inspiration comes naturally but one has to arrange regular meetings with it."
L'Imposteur (1931) was a conclusion of Jean Hugo's first artistic period. Around this time he moved from Paris to the family property at the Mas de Fourques, Lunel, France, after the death of his grandmother. His painting of that period was a masterful assembly of the most important insights he had acquired so far. The lessons of the Italian primitives, of Poussin, of Henri Rousseau, and Picasso, were among the sources of inspiration on which he was constantly drawing.
In the middle of the 1930s, Jean Hugo started to use oil paints to create his larger compositions while continuing to paint with tempera.
The artist's work witnessed his intention to work outside of present-day currents and fashionable theories. He never took part in the artistic debates and paid the price for it by never achieving wide recognition of his work by the general public.
The artist illustrated many limited edition books published between 1948 and 1984 by Pierre-André Benoit (PAB), collaborating with such writers as René Char, Marcel Jouhandeau, Tristan Tzara and René Crevel.
Jean Hugo's artworks were widely exhibited, with solo retrospectives taking place in France, England, Japan, Canada and the United States. Among the most prominent of them were: Jean Hugo and Max Jacob at the Claridge Gallery, London, 1929; Jean Hugo '77 at the Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, 1977; Paintings and Drawings by Jean Hugo and Jean Cocteau at Sotheby's, London, 1981; Jean Hugo: 1894-1984 at the Musée des Beaux Arts, Béziers, 1985; Jean Hugo: a Retrospective at the Julian Barran Gallery, London, 1996; Jean Hugo et la Scène at the Bibliothèque-musée de l’Opéra, Paris, 2001; Jean Hugo: l'Enlumineur du Quotidien at the Musée Pierre André Benoit, Alès, 2014, etc.
Maurice Sachs: "Jean Hugo was calm, kind and generous. Life flowed calmly before him and we knew of no enemies of his. He carried the heavy burden of his family name with elegance. Like his father Georges Hugo he was a man of the world, a man of great distinction in heart and spirit, a kind friend, a man you would want to have in your life."
Jean Cocteau: "Jean Hugo mixed his almost monstrous calm into the tumultuous enterprises of our youth. He was, and remains the very image of that perfect humility of the illuminators, for whom daily truths trumpted decorative graces..."
Gustave Thibon: "He [Jean Hugo] was a strange being, admirable, a mystic, a lover, a great artist, who no doubt sinned by excess of modesty. He had been a little tired of fame by his name, which was extremely heavy. [...] I consider him a great painter, and a great painter that is relatively unknown. If he hadn't found others to look after publicising him, he would never have sold a single painting. Picasso, who was a good friend of his, used to say to him "you do nothing for your fame." And indeed he did nothing for it - others did it to him. Once again, he was a pure being. If the word innocence could be applied to anyone it was him. He was very handsome, and of prodigious vitality - dare I say Hugolian. He was detached enough not to install himself in his own name - while still showing unconditional admiration for the work of his great ancestor, that he knew in detail."
Paul Morand: "Jean Hugo's artistic temperament holds its own outside of all fashions. His work reminds us of the marvels that the relaxation of some prince of ancient times might have produced, as can be found in the tales of a thousand and one nights."
Interests
Artists
Henri Rousseau, Nicolas Poussin, Pablo Picasso
Connections
Jean Hugo was married twice. His first marriage was to Valentine Hugo (née Valentine Gross); they wed in 1919. They had no children. In 1949 Hugo remarried to Lauretta Hope-Nicholson, daughter of Hedley Hope-Nicholson. Jean Hugo and Lauretta had seven children together. Several of them established successful careers in the arts.