Jean Hugo | |
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Autoportrait, 1918
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Born |
Jean Hugo 19 November 1894 Paris, France |
Died | 21 June 1984 Lunel, France |
(aged 89)
Occupation | Artist |
Spouse(s) | Valentine Hugo (1919) Lauretta Hugo (1949) |
Children | Two sons, five daughters |
Jean Hugo (19 November 1894 – 21 June 1984) was a painter, illustrator, theatre designer and author. He was born in Paris and died in his home at the Mas de Fourques, near Lunel, France. Brought up in a lively artistic environment, he began teaching himself drawing and painting and wrote essays and poetry from a very early age. His artistic career spans the 20th century, from his early sketches of the First World War, through the creative ferment of the Parisian interwar years, and up to his death in 1984. He was part of a number of artistic circles that included Jean Cocteau, Raymond Radiguet, Pablo Picasso, Georges Auric, Erik Satie, Blaise Cendrars, Marie-Laure de Noailles, Paul Eluard, Francis Poulenc, Charles Dullin, Louis Jouvet, Colette, Marcel Proust, Jacques Maritain, Max Jacob, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Marie Bell, Louise de Vilmorin, Cecil Beaton and many others.
Jean Hugo was the great-grandson of the poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France, Victor Hugo. His grandfather, Charles Hugo was a journalist, pioneer of early photographic techniques and a campaigner against the death penalty, and his father Georges Hugo was a published author and a recognised painter.
His mother, Pauline Ménard-Dorian, was the daughter of Paul-François Ménard, conseiller général and député of the Hérault department during the 1870s–80s, by his wife Aline Dorian, daughter of Pierre Frédéric Dorian, minister of works during the siege of Paris.