$4,445
Estimate: $800 - $1,200
What Do You See? The Collection of Sidney Rothberg, Part II
Auction: February 28, 2024 at 12 PM ET
Signed ‘Jean Hugo’ bottom right; also inscribed with title and numbered ‘29’ verso, gouache on paper
Sheet size: 3 ¼ x 5 in. (8.6 x 12.7cm)
The Collection of Sidney Rothberg, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Great-grandson to the illustrious poet and novelist Victor Hugo, Jean Hugo’s career as a painter spanned over seventy years. From the City of Light to the Camargue region of the South of France where he retired -a wild, sun-drenched terrain that inspired him - Jean Hugo developed a sensitive art that revealed much of his quiet, often mystique personality. Overall, he produced over 1,000 works, from oils to watercolors, drawings, set designs, theater costumes and even stain glass windows.
A friend of artists Picasso and Max Jacob, and of novelists Jean Cocteau and Raymond Radiguet, Hugo did not seek glory, and in fact found it challenging to live in the shadows of his famous great-grandfather. Picasso himself once said to him: "You should show your work more, you are not as known as you deserve to be; you’re not taking enough care of your posterity."
Hugo’s colorful, delicate and meticulous landscapes appealed to a wide range of collectors, including in the USA and particularly in the Philadelphia area as Dr. Barnes was a personal friend of the artist, and exhibited several of his works in his mythical Foundation. An admirer of the Barnes methodology, Sidney Rothberg of course, had to collect Jean Hugo. He, in fact, became one of the most represented artists in his Collection; the one he would introduce to his daughter and granddaughter as they learned to bid at auction.