Born 1802, Victor Hugo, the son of an army general, was the product of a separation between his parents at the age of two. Raised and educated in Paris, by his mother, Hugo began to write verses of tragedy and poetry in his early adolescence. Hugo's first collection of poems, gained him a royal pension from Louis XVIII.

In 1823, Hugo married and the same year, he made his debut as a novelist, but his widest audience came in the form of plays in 1830. The most famous of these is his historical "Hunchback of Notre Dame". Hugo also published several volumes of lyric poetry. His style was rich, intense and full of powerful rhythms, and followed the bourgeois popular taste of the period but with personal bitter tones.

In 1840, Hugo became involved in politics as a supporter of social justice. Hugo was elected in 1841 to the Académie Francaise, but this triumph was shadowed by the death of his daughter Léopoldine in 1843. It was ten years before Victor would, again, publish books. In 1848, he was elected to the Constitutional and Legislative Assembly.

Victor Hugo was also highly skilled in visual arts. As a boy, Victor drew illustrations of history, and geography with a skill well beyond his age. There was a latent talent in Victor, which would later develop into a powerful means of his inner most self-expression. As a father, Hugo drew for his children. This was not unusual in most educated families. Drawing was considered to be a necessary accomplishment, a usual pastime. He was known to create caricatures, comics and jokes, leaving them on the children's pillows for them to find before they went to bed.

In 1840, Victor Hugo began using ink spots as a starting point for his art. The idea was to develop a drawing with ink spots as the basis. He exploited this element in a visionary way, finding a recognizable form from the formless and drawing it out. This became his favorite means of self-expression. He could paint a painting in one evening, ask for a cup of coffee and finish the work by lightly showering the drawing with coffee. The result was unexpected and powerful, strange, but personal. When Victor traveled, he always took a sketchpad with him.

During the years 1843-1851, after the death of his daughter, Léopoldine, Hugo became increasingly involved in politics. His writing and poetry stopped. Victor began to use drawings and paintings as his primary outlet for artistic creativity.

In 1851, during the political upheaval of Louis Napoleon III, Hugo believing his life to be in danger, fled to Brussels until he was expelled for sheltering defeated revolutionaries. During his exile, Hugo, was once again, writing. He also drew a number of pictures, prompting the descriptive sentences with visual images. Victor chose 36 of his drawings for use in the manuscript before it was bound. Twenty years later, after a short refuge in Luxemburg, he returned to France and was elected senator. During the time of his exile, Hugo wrote some his best works, including the famous Les Misérables in 1862.

Victor Hugo died in Paris, 1885. He was given a national funeral, attended by two million people, and buried in the Panthéon.