Victor Hugo / Louis Soutter

This comparison invites visitors to follow two extraordinary artists who pushed the boundaries and allowed themselves to be guided by their vision and liberty alone. Artist and violinist Louis Soutter (1871-1942) was a key figure in Swiss art and his works are collected all over the world. The cousin of architects Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, Soutter’s unusual work is an important source of inspiration for contemporary artists such as Arnulf Rainer.Between 1923 and 1927 Soutter, aged 52 at the time and in a hospice for elderly people in the Jura Vaudois, started to draw and write with quill and black ink in forty or so school exercise books. He also covered the pages of twenty or so works (novels, art and poetry books) with drawings and short comments. An acquaintance of writers Jean Giono and Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, he took inspiration from various playwrights, novelists and poets. It is in his drawings that he refers to writings by Victor Hugo, as well as to William Shakespeare, a figure of reference for Hugo’s work. Curators: Gérard Audinet, Curator General, Director of Victor Hugo’s House and Julie Borgeaud, Guest Curator#HugoSoutter