To Victor Hugo (A Victor Hugo)

Much of Henri Fantin-Latour’s art expresses the notion of homage in some way. Even as an adult, well after his student days were over, he spent hours copying paintings in the Louvre in a spirit of humility and admiration. Fantin was steeped not only in his artistic heritage but also in literature, the Romantics above all. Victor Hugo, the author of Les Misérables and a towering figure in the French pantheon, is the subject of this tribute, in which a bust of the poet is crowned with a laurel garland as trumpets sound.