Victor HUGO (Besançon, 1802 - Paris, 1885) Burg in the middle of the waves, 1857 Pen and brush, brown wash, white gouache and gum arabic highlights. Signed, localized and dated at the bottom: "Victor Hugo Guernsey 1857". (Chips in the center). 24,7 x 18 cm Provenance : - Former Léon-Émile Allix (1836-1911) collection. By descent until 2014. - Anonymous sale, Hôtel des ventes des notaires du Bas-Rhin, Strasbourg, May 17, 2014, n° 117. Exhibition: Endless Enigma: Eight Centuries of Fantastic Art, David Zwirner, New York, September 12-October 26, 2018. Our composition gives pride of place to the signature, which composes the entire bottom of the sheet. Hugo certainly composed his sheet knowing to whom he would give it. The drawing, is a gift from Hugo to his friends, the Allix family, who had moved to Brussels, in 1856, after they too had experienced exile in Guernsey. During his exile, every year, Victor Hugo went to Belgium. The boat passed near the Ortach Rock, an imposing granite block planted in the north of the island of Guernsey. Victor Hugo, impressed, drew it several times, as during this crossing of July 27, 1868, where he notes on the back of the drawing: "The Ortach Rock. July 27. 11 a.m. I cut this page because of the Ortach rock that I had drawn on it and that I pasted into the manuscript of the Trav. de la Mer" (see: M.L. Prévost, Victor Hugo, L'homme-océan, Paris, Édition BNF Seuil, 2002, n° 252, p. 278-289, reproduced.) Our burg in the middle of the waves may be a re-inhabited version of the famous rock placed in the middle of the waves, which he brought as a gift to his former companions in exile during his regular trips to Belgium. As usual, Victor Hugo plays with the brown wash and makes emerge from the darkness a tower, a rampart, a burg in the middle of the waves. The storm is approaching and the boats are bending on the waves under a growing wind.