This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.
Le Aventures de Fido Caniche by surrealist artist Valentine Hugo, is an intricately detailed picture book that follows a dream sequence of Fido, an innocent, inquisitive poodle. In the dream Fido visits other exotic animals including a peacock and a lion, and at one point successfully imitates a lion to scare people and steal their food. However, when a rainstorm washes away his scary disguise the other forest animals mock him and he realizes he must return to his owner, Marguerite.
Valentine Hugo, a talented illustrator belonged to a famous circle of surrealists, at one point marrying Jean Hugo, but also was romantically involved with the surrealist Andre Breton. She was drawn to ballet and set design, though her work was not always successful. Her most long lasting artistic endeavor and partnership was with Paul Éluard. Her art was successful in her lifetime and she was in several surrealist exhibitions. There was also a posthumous retrospective of her work exhibited at Centre Culturel Thibaud de Champagne in 1977.
Houghton Library has several other works with Hugo’s illustrations including: Le phénix. Avec 18 dessins de Valentine Hugo by Paul Eluard, Médieuses : poèmes / de Paul Eluard ; illustrés par Valentine Hugo and Mouvements de danse de l’antiquité à nos jours / Valentine Gross. Also available at Houghton Library from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection, is a book of family photos compiled by Valentine Hugo from her younger years: Photos de familles : photograph album, ca. 1907.
Le aventures de fido Caniche / Valentine Hugo : Paris : Guy Le Prat, c1947 is available at the Fine Arts Library.
Thanks to Emma Clement, Santo Domingo Library Assistant, for contributing this post.