{"id":55828,"date":"2024-10-02T19:10:44","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T19:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.accartbooks.com\/uk\/book\/astonishing-things\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T16:10:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T16:10:19","slug":"astonishing-things","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.accartbooks.com\/uk\/book\/astonishing-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Astonishing Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

The novelist, poet and politician, Victor Hugo (1802–1885) was a towering figure in French 19th-century public life. The author of Les Misérables<\/em> and The Hunchback of Notre Dame<\/em> became a symbol of the French Republic’s ideals of equality and freedom during his long exile in the Channel Islands. His ink-and-wash visions of imaginary castles, monsters and seascapes may be less well known than his writings, but they inspired Romantic and Symbolist poets, and many artists, including the Surrealists; Vincent van Gogh compared them to ‘astonishing things’.<\/p>\n

This handsome book – the catalogue of an exhibition organised by the Royal Academy of Arts in collaboration with Paris Musées – Maison de Victor Hugo and the Bibliothèque nationale de France – includes new texts by leading authorities on Hugo and reproductions of many of his finest works on paper, from early caricatures and travel drawings to dramatic landscapes and experiments in abstraction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Accompanies the major Victor Hugo exhibition at the Royal Academy, London, 21 March – 29 June 2025. Discover the imaginary worlds of Victor Hugo, one of France’s most famous writers, with his rarely-seen works on paper.
President’s Foreword 7
\nAcknowledgements 8
\nDouble Vision: Victor Hugo’s Mind’s Eye 12
\nSARAH LEA
\nHow a Poet Becomes a Painter 30
\nGÉRARD AUDINET
\nArchitecture in the Drawings of Victor Hugo 40
\nTHOMAS CAZENTRE
\nCatalogue Plates
\nWITH SECTION INTRODUCTIONS BY ROSE THOMPSON
\nWriting and Drawing 50
\nObservation and Imagination 66
\nFantasy and Reality 102
\nOcean 128
\nChronology 150
\nROSE THOMPSON
\nNotes 160
\nSelected Bibliography 164
\nLenders to the Exhibition 166
\nPhotographic Acknowledgements 166
\nIndex 167<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":57272,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":""},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[5568],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-55828","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-art","7":"author-by-author-gerard-audinet","8":"author-by-author-rose-thompson","9":"author-by-author-sarah-lea","10":"author-by-author-thomas-cazentre","11":"publisher-royal-academy-of-arts","13":"first","14":"instock","15":"shipping-taxable","16":"purchasable","17":"product-type-simple"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAstonishing Things - ACC Art Books UK<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Title: Astonishing Things, Pages: 172 Pages, Publish Date: 21st Feb 2025, Author: G\u00e9rard Audinet, Rose Thompson, Sarah Lea, Thomas Cazentre, ISBN: 9781915815118. Accompanies the major Victor Hugo exhibition at the Royal Academy, London, 21 March - 29 June 2025. Discover the imaginary worlds of Victor Hugo, one of France’s most famous writers, with his rarely-seen works on paper.President’s Foreword 7 Acknowledgements 8 Double Vision: Victor Hugo’s Mind’s Eye 12 SARAH LEA How a Poet Becomes a Painter 30 GÉRARD AUDINET Architecture in the Drawings of Victor Hugo 40 THOMAS CAZENTRE Catalogue Plates WITH SECTION INTRODUCTIONS BY ROSE THOMPSON Writing and Drawing 50 Observation and Imagination 66 Fantasy and Reality 102 Ocean 128 Chronology 150 ROSE THOMPSON Notes 160 Selected Bibliography 164 Lenders to the Exhibition 166 Photographic Acknowledgements 166 Index 167\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.accartbooks.com\/uk\/book\/astonishing-things\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Astonishing Things - ACC Art Books UK\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Title: Astonishing Things, Pages: 172 Pages, Publish Date: 21st Feb 2025, Author: G\u00e9rard Audinet, Rose Thompson, Sarah Lea, Thomas Cazentre, ISBN: 9781915815118. Accompanies the major Victor Hugo exhibition at the Royal Academy, London, 21 March - 29 June 2025. 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