750 - 5 carte-de-visite portraits of Victor Hugo. Paris, Brussels, no place of publication [c. 1860–1880] 5 albumen prints, ± 8.5 × 5.5 cm, mounted on cardboard, several of which bear studio marks (some foxing, some prints slightly faded, slight abrasion on the back of one print near the mark, old pencil annotations except for one in ink by an old hand on the back of one print). Good condition. An interesting collection of images showing Victor Hugo at different ages. Includes, notably, a portrait by Franck, 18 rue Vivienne in Paris, with the photographer’s name and dry stamp on the front, and the studio mark on the back; a portrait by Delabarre & Cie, Brussels, with the studio mark on the front and the address “Photographi[e parisie]nne, 36 rue Fossé aux Loups” on the back; two commercially published portraits, one intended for the German-speaking market (“No. 1479. Victor Hugo geb. 26. Februar 1802”) and the other bearing “DD Phot.,” Victor Hugo’s printed name, and the number 383; finally, an uncredited standing portrait with an old handwritten identification on the reverse. Photographs of Victor Hugo were widely circulated as visiting cards beginning in his years of exile, helping to establish and popularize the writer’s image. Delabarre’s Brussels portrait is part of the extensive body of photographic work associated with Hugo’s stays in Belgium.