Context and Meaning XXIII
Present | Past

On May 18, 1885, Victor Hugo’s family announced that the famed 83-year-old writer’s death was imminent. From the moment this was declared, the press waited outside his home for news, and swiftly published prints showing his loved ones lingering around his deathbed. Details of Hugo’s own experience of waiting for death were also shared with the adoring public, often on an hourly basis. When he died 4 days later, twelve artists were quickly summoned to depict his body. Armed with pencils, paint, pastels, plaster and cameras, they rushed to capture his likeness: they wanted their up-to-date images of the deceased grand homme to serve as historical documents for the future. After 9 days of political deliberation and turmoil, Hugo’s funeral ceremonies finally began. His body was transported to the Arc de Triomphe, where people lined up to see his casket. The next day, over two million people waited to watch the funeral procession that carried Hugo through the streets of Paris to his final resting place at the Panthéon.

This paper explores how the temporal mode of waiting was central not only to the narratives and visual representations of Hugo’s death but also to shaping Hugo’s identity for posterity. By exploring the tensions between the slow time of waiting for death and the fast time of journalism, commerce and bodily decay, it analyzes how waiting for Hugo – to die, be portrayed and buried – was experienced in different ways, from the profoundly intimate to the empty and commodified.