Quasimodo (c. 1875–80): Art, History and Details

Quasimodo (c. 1875–80) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The nineteenth-century French artist Odilon Redon was known for works defined by their darkness—both the black materials he used and the mood of his fantastical themes. This drawing depicts Quasimodo, the protagonist of Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but does not directly relate to the text. Redon layered and rubbed away charcoal marks to create the indeterminate space behind the pair.

Object facts

• Title: Quasimodo
• Date: c. 1875–80
• Creator attribution: Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: charcoal with fabricated black chalk and touches of white and gray gouache on gray wove paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 36.8 x 32.9 cm (14 1/2 x 12 15/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2020.63

A detail from the museum

Victor Hugo, the author who inspired this drawing’s subject, also made drawings with black materials inspired by his own imagination, much like Redon’s own work.

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Wildenstein, Alec. Odilon Redon, catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre peint et dessiné. Paris: Wildenstein Institute, 1992.
• Peintures et dessins des XIXe et XXe siècles. Paris: Drouot, 1997.
• Jumeau-Lafond, Jean-David. Les Peintres de l’âme: Le Symbolisme idéaliste en France. Exh. cat. Brussels: Musée d’Ixelles, 1999.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.