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"Victor Hugo and the Romanticists" Exhibition

Felix Nadar, "Victor Hugo" (1878), Tokyo Fuji Art Museum

The "Victor Hugo and the Romanticists" exhibition opened on October 29 at the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum (TFAM), Hachioji, Tokyo in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the French poet's birth. It illustrates his life through a rich selection of rare original texts and artifacts which place Hugo in the context of the Romantic movement through which a generation of artists in France strove to find a manner of expression truer to the inner life of man than the constraints of the Classical period.

Hugo's struggles as a champion of social justice are highlighted, as well as his literary achievements. As Daisaku Ikeda, founder of TFAM and the Victor Hugo House of Literature in Bièvres, France, writes in his message to visitors to this exhibition, "Victor Hugo wrote that the dreams of great men presage the future. I am firmly convinced that what he has proclaimed--his aspirations for peace and respect for human rights in a turbulent age, and his quest, sometimes groping, toward the creation of new values--still endures, two centuries later; a living force which has enabled countless individuals to elevate their spirit and enlarge their potential."

Organized in two main sections, the exhibition covers Victor Hugo's life and works before, during and after his 19-year exile in Jersey, followed by an extensive section of displays relating to the literary and artistic milieu of the Romantic period, ranging from early photographs to costumes, ceramics and musical instruments. On display are memorabilia of two of Hugo's peers, Alexandre Dumas Sr. (1802-1870) and French composer Hector Berlioz (1803-1869), as well as paintings by Romanticists of Hugo's era such as Eugène Delacroix.

Printers' proof corrected by Hugo,"Les Misèrables" (1856)

TFAM, the Victor Hugo House of Literature and the Asahi Shimbun newspaper company are exhibition sponsors. Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Agency for Cultural Affairs are patrons, in cooperation with 35 renowned museums and libraries in France and Japan. Patrons of the exhibition in France are M. Christian Poncelet, president of the French Senate, M. Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, French minister of culture and communications, and M. Bernard de Montferraud, ambassador of France to Japan. Some 400 guests attended the opening, including Marie Hugo, president of the Hugo Friendship Association.

The exhibition features 500 items belonging to the Victor Hugo House of Literature, and a total of six national treasures of France, including the printers' proofs for Les Misèrables, La Légende des Siècles and Les Contemplations, shown in Japan in their entirety for the first time. The French writer's legacy is presented through original manuscripts, proof galleys, photographs, letters and writing paraphernalia and many of his high-quality drawings. Portraits of him by noted artists and sculptors of his time including the great Rodin are also featured in the exhibition, which runs through January 15, 2005, in Tokyo and will then tour Hokkaido and Osaka.

Victor Hugo House of Literature

The Victor Hugo House of Literature, which opened on June 21, 1991, at La Maison des Roches outside Paris, a house that Hugo himself often visited and cherished, is a celebration of the life and works of the great French writer and humanist, with an extensive collection of historical papers.

Hugo's sketch, "Paysage aux Trois Arbres" (1850)  [cPMVP/Cliche:JOFFRE]

Visitors to the House of Literature have been moved to find that Hugo did not content himself with ideals and visions alone, but that he was constantly searching for the means to realize them, particularly with regard to his proposal for the establishment of a United States of Europe and the creation of one common currency.

Eugene Delacroix's first religious painting "La Vierge des Moissons"(1819)  [Photographie D.L.]

The House of Literature's collection consists of 4,500 unique pieces: manuscripts, original photographs, letters, autographs and rare publications. Its goal is to spotlight the spirit of Victor Hugo, not as a man of the past, but as a man of our times who can make a contribution to the present and future. The House of Literature also welcomes many schoolchildren, sharing with them this vision of Victor Hugo the man. Many are initially not interested in reading his works, but when they hear about Victor Hugo's life, they want to know more about his work.

As Philippe Moine, director of the House of Literature, writes of the current exhibit, "It is [his] courageous, combative, altruistic and generous spirit which, more than 200 years after his birth, symbolizes Hugo and a certain idea of France, in the eyes of innumerable admirers around the world."

Hugo's last written words, penned on May 19, 1885, days before his death, "Aimer, c'est agir"--to love is to act--themselves a national treasure of France, are included in the exhibition and provide a fitting summary of the message of this broad and inspiring exhibition.

Lithography showing Hugo leading the Romanticists of his time. Benjamin Roubaud, c. 1830
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