An unpublished drawing by Victor Hugo, Départ du ballon, sold for 37,500 euros on Wednesday in Paris. That is double its high estimate of 18,000 euros, announced auction house Sotheby's. This drawing by Victor Hugo refers to the war of 1870 and the siege of Paris by the Prussians. The drawing depicts a balloon with a basket that rises above the roofs and steeples of Paris, in milky colors. It thus testifies to the war of 1870 and the very humiliating period of the siege of Paris by the Prussians. Period also preceding the Paris Commune.
#AuctionUpdate 'Départ du Ballon' très beau dessin original de Victor Hugo qui illustre probablement les ballons montés utilisés pendant le siège de Paris, triple son estimation et s'envole jusqu'à 37,500€ #SothebysBooks pic.twitter.com/NkvMrkA2Yh
— Sotheby's France (@SothebysFr) June 17, 2020
Balloon Departure is a tribute to the mounted balloons used during the siege to communicate out of town. Among the 67 that rose in 1870 and 1871, that of September 26, 1870 carried tracts written by Victor Hugo that were dropped over enemy lines.
The photographer Nadar had asked Hugo if another balloon could be named after him: "I ask no better than to ascend to heaven by you!" replied the poet.
The balloon "Victor Hugo" rose from the Tuileries garden to shouts of "Vive la République". It was carrying mail. Hugo kept Nadar's invitation which he stuck on his diaries, after having torn from the envelope the stamp that represented Napoleon III, whom he contemptuously nicknamed "Napoleon the Little".
More than 60 years of collections
This set was granted during the final phase of the dispersal begun in 2011 of the important literary collection R. & B.L. The sale took place online since June 11, organized by Sotheby's in association with Binoche and Giquello. This last part of books and autographs of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries paid tribute to French literature. The unpublished drawing will be included in the catalogue raisonné of Victor Hugo's drawings.
