What Do You See? The Collection of Sidney Rothberg, Part III

Provenance:

Christie's East, New York, sale of October 27, 1981, lot 252.

Acquired directly from the above sale.

Lot Note:

To learn more about the artist in this sale, please refer to Lots 76 and 93. For other works by the artist in The Collection of Sidney Rothberg Part IV (June 25), please see Lots 248, 260, 267, 268, 269, 368 and 369.

Ten works by Jean Hugo are available across the two-day sale.

Lot Essay:

Jean Hugo was a French painter, illustrator, stage designer, and writer known for his poetic and intimate artistic style. His work is a blend of modernist and classical influences, often executed in a small format and characterized by delicate colors, dreamlike compositions, and a sensitivity to both nature and human emotion. 

Born in Paris in 1894, Jean was the great-grandson of Victor Hugo, a literary giant whose legacy cast a long shadow over the family. Charles Hugo, Jean’s grandfather, was a journalist and a pioneer of early photographic techniques, while his father, Georges Hugo was a published author and recognized painter. Growing up in an environment filled with literature and art, Jean developed a keen interest in creative expression. He taught himself drawing and painting, and from an early age wrote poetry and essays. He was educated at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris before enlisting in the French army during World War I, where he served in the trenches.  

After the war, Hugo became involved with avant-garde artistic circles in Paris. He was closely associated with the Surrealists, including Max Jacob and Jean Cocteau. He gained recognition for his theater work, designing sets and costumes for Coteau’s Orphée and the 1921 production of Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel. Likewise, he was influenced by such figures as Pablo Picasso and the composer Erik Satie. However, the artist’s style remained unique, one marked by a quiet lyricism that set him apart yet evokes avant-garde themes of magical realism or metaphysical painting. 

Hugo’s illustrations and paintings depict a wide variety of subjects, ranging from pastoral and urban scenes, still lifes, and portraits of loved ones, including Lauretta, Marie et Caroline (The Collection of Sidney Rothberg, Part IV, Lot 269) rendered with a luminous simplicity reminiscent of early Renaissance painters.

Examples of the artist’s clear light and naïve color schemes can be seen in both Terrasse de Café à Sète, 1939, (The Collection of Sidney Rothberg, Part IV, Lot 267) as well as the present work. His paintings were based on the sketchbooks that he had with him at all times, believing that: "Inspiration comes naturally but one has to arrange regular meetings with it." 

In 1929, Hugo left Paris and settled in the south of France at Mas de Fourques, near Lunel, where he dedicated himself to painting and living a more rural, introspective life. L'Église du Village (The Collection of Sidney Rothberg, Part III, Lot 29), Les Dombes, Vert (The Collection of Sidney Rothberg, Part IV, Lot 260), and Village aux Vaches Blanches (The Collection of Sidney Rothberg, Part IV, Lot 369) all reflect his fascination with memory, mythology, and everyday beauty, seen through the lens of the bucolic French countryside. Although the artist never achieved the widespread fame of some of his contemporaries, his work is highly regarded for its sincerity and poetic sensibility, as well as its quiet elegance and evocative power.