Author(s):
rochegrosse, georges-antoine (versailles, 02–08–1859 - el biar, 11–07–1938), designer
other title: illustration for "les contemplations" in edition hugues (subtitle)
production date: around 1886
dating in century: 19th century
type(s) of object(s): graphic arts
name(s): drawing
materials and techniques: charcoal
dimensions - artwork:
height: 60cm
width: 46cm
iconographic description:
illustration for victor hugo's poem "les malheureux" from the collection "les contemplations", book v, xxvi, representing adam and eve lamenting after the murder of abel by cain. The drawing corresponds to the last stanza of the poetry: "in the first days of the world, when the cloud, surprised, contemplated each created thing, while on the globe where evil had grown, floated a glow of the vanished eden, when everything still seemed to be filled with dawn, when on the tree of time the years had just hatched, on the earth, where the flesh with the spirit melts, there was a deep silence in the evening, and the desert, the wood, the wave with vast shores, and the grasses of the fields, and the wild beasts, moved, and the rocks, these dark dungeons, saw, from a dark cavern covered with trees so tall that our oaks nearby would seem like shrubs, come out two tall old men, naked, sinister, august. They were eve with bleached hair, and her husband, pale adam, pensive, by work bruised, having the vision of god under his eyelid. They both came to sit on a stone, in the presence of the tawny and worried mountains, and of the formidable eternity of the heavens. Their sad eye made nature fierce; and there, without a breath coming from their mouth, their hands on their knees and turning their backs, overwhelmed like those who carry burdens, with no other movement of external life than lowering their heads lower from hour to hour, in a dull and fatal stupor absorbed, cold, livid, haggard, they looked, bent, under the unlimited being without figure and without number, one, the day diminished, and the other, the shadow grew. Swarming stars filled the black sky, they thought, and, dreamers, without hearing, without seeing, deaf to the rumors of the seas from which the hurricane rushes, all night, in the shadows, they wept in silence; they both wept, ancestors of the human race, the father over abel, the mother over cain. Historical commentary:
the collection "les contemplation" was republished in edition hugues in 1886 and appeared in eighteen issues which were brought together in the second volume of the "poetic works of victor hugo ii". This drawing can therefore be dated around 1886, it serves as a model for the plate engraved by fortuné méaulle and placed inset, in the volume edition, between pages 88 and 89 (contrary to the usual which includes the plates in the pagination). This is the only contribution from rochegrosse for this collection of which he shares the illustration with emile bayard ("la fête chez thérèse", mvhpd0418a), albert maignan and e. Ronjat for the portraits. Themes / subjects / places represented:
contemplations (v. Hugo)
person / character depicted:
adam (biblical character); eve (biblical character)
acquisition method: manual donation
date of acquisition: 1903
institution: maison de victor hugo - hauteville house
inventory number: 521. Date: Vers 1886.
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