Achille-Isidore Gilbert

Victor Hugo

Achille-Isidore Gilbert's portrait of Victor Hugo, France's most influential writer of the nineteenth century is an original etching & drypoint engraving printed upon fine vellum and with full margins as published in Paris around 1885. This 'Remarque Proof' impression is signed and annotated by the artist in pencil along the lower margin. "Victor Hugo" is a superb, original example of the portrait art by the 19th century French artist, Achille-Isidore Gilbert.

Original Etching & Drypoint Engraving on Vellum by the French artist, Achille-Isidore Gilbert.

Victor Hugo

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Title:	Victor Hugo
Artist:	Gilbert, Achille-Isidore (Paris 1828 - 1899)
Date:	c. 1880 - 1885
Medium:	Original Etching & Drypoint Engraving on Vellum
Note:	Achille-Isidore Gilbert: A nineteenth century French painter and etcher, Achille-Isidore Gilbert studied art in Paris under Couture and de Belloc. During his career Gilbert was frequently commissioned by the Gazette des Beaux-Arts to engrave plates after the designs of Rosa Bonheur, Robert-Fleury, Diaz and others. His etched work in portraiture was particularly noteworthy and he engraved the portraits of such famous individuals as Hector Berlioz, Victor Hugo and Beule.
	Achille-Isidore Gilbert received international exposition medals for his etchings in 1864, 1865, 1875 and 1878. As well as being very well known for his art in France, Gilbert also exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, from 1877 to 1884..
	Mention should here be made of this particular impression of Victor Hugo. In nineteenth century terms it is called a 'Remarque Proof'. Simply this is one of the first impressions printed from the plate. It includes a smaller image along the lower margin --the Remarque -- which in this case is appropriately a writer's quill. Remarque proofs were often printed on the most expensive materials, such as vellum, and were the only impressions to receive the pencil signature of the artist. The regular, published edition would contain neither the remarque nor the signature. On this impression Achille-Isidore Gilbert has also written, "Premier etat tire a 50 epreuves" -- 'First state printed in 50 proofs'.
	This etching was probably published in Victor Hugo's final years (c. 1880-1885) and, because of his enormous fame, must have been in great demand.
	"Victor Hugo was a madman who believed himself to be Victor Hugo" -- Jean Cocteau
	A Biographical Note: From his literary beginnings as the champion of French Romanticism of the 1830's, to the much revered 'Grand Old Man of Letters' in the 1870's, to the role of almost a Demigod in his final years, Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was undoubtedly France's most influential writer of the nineteenth century. Robert Baldick writes, "It was as a god, too, that he was taken to his grave, in a funeral of unparalleled magnificence, with the route from the Etoile to the Pantheon hung with crepe and lined with emblems of his works, a procession of two million mourners, the Arc de Triomphe draped in black, and in the midst of all these splendors, eclipsing them with its characteristic, antithetical, theatrical simplicity, the dead man's coffin borne along on the pauper's hearse he had asked for." *
	Of his many poems, plays and novels Hugo's most famous works are probably Notre-Dame de Paris (1831) and Les Miserables (1862). He became a Republican in 1848 and participated in the unsuccessful revolt against Louis Napoleon in 1851. This resulted in a 15 year exile on the island of Guernsey. Upon his return to Paris in 1870 Hugo entered politics and was elected to the Senate in 1876.
	The many contradictions of Victor Hugo's public image with that of his private life have been the subject of countless biographical studies for well over a century. In a way one is reminded of France's other great 'larger than life' figure (whom Hugo loathed), Napoleon Bonaparte. In both cases it becomes an almost impossible task to separate the man from the myth.
Reference:	* Roger Baldick, "Victor Hugo", Louis Kronenberger, ed., Brief Lives: A Biographical Companion to the Arts, Boston, Little Brown and Co., 1971, p. 393.
Edition:	First State, 50 Proofs on Vellum
Size:	10 1/4 X 7 3/4 (Sizes in inches are approximate, height preceding width of plate-mark or image.)
	Matted with 100% Archival Materials
Buy Now	Price: $385.00 US
Condition:	Printed upon fine vellum and with full margins as published in Paris around 1885. Previously laid down to board and containing glue marks on the verso as well as faint wood burning. Yet, because vellum is such a strong material, very little damage has occurred to the actual etching and its margins. Signed and annotated by the artist in pencil along the lower margin. A finely printed, proof impression and in very good condition throughout. Victor Hugo represents a superb, original example of the portrait art of Achille-Isidore Gilbert.
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