Before it was made into over fifty films and an award-winning musical, Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables was a rampant best seller when it appeared in 1862. And the popular cartoonists who had caricatured Hugo for thirty years leapt at the chance to satirize his epic novel.
At Marva’s invitation, Gérard Pouchain presents the first-ever exhibition of original publications of Les Misérables caricatures—ranging from parodies to comic sketches of the author with his characters and coming from his personal collection. The exhibit—Les Misérables Just for Laughs / Les Misérables pour rire—will be on display in University of Virginia Rotunda Upper West Oval Room from January 21 through February 28, 2017, open from 9:00 am until 5:00 pm. The exhibit and accompanying catalogue (in French with English translations by Robert F. Cook) are free. See how the exhibit came together, and see it in the space!
On Monday, January 23, 2:00-3:30 pm in the Rotunda Upper West Oval Room, Gérard Pouchain will visit with exhibit goers and sign exhibition catalogues. Then, at 4:00 pm in the Rotunda Dome Room, he will give his illustrated French presentation:
“La caricature au service de la gloire, ou Victor Hugo raconté par le portrait-charge.”
Gérard Pouchain, formerly professeur agrégé at the Lycée Buffon, is currently a research associate at the Centre d’Études et de Recherche Éditer/Interpréter (CÉRÉdI), Université de Rouen. Author of a detailed biography of Hugo’s long-time lover, Juliette Drouet, M. Pouchain has curated—and edited catalogues for—numerous exhibitions of caricatures of Victor Hugo in Europe, the United States, China, and Cuba. In 2008, the French government recognized his contributions to literary and historical studies by naming him Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur. In 2012 he published the definitive study Victor Hugo par la caricature (Paris: Les Editions de l’Amateur, 2013).
Lire l’annonce en français: Les Misérables pour rire.
Sponsored by an Arts Endowment Grant, the Department of French, the Vice Provost for the Arts, the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, and the Department of Drama.