Valentine Hugo

Valentine Hugo was a French artist and one of the few women at the heart of the Surrealist movement. She became known primarily for her significant work with the Ballets Russes—a work of hers hung in the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées during Igor Stravinsky’s infamous debut of The Rite of Spring—and her participation in the Surrealist game of Exquisite Corpse that produced a number of remarkable, collaborative drawings and collages.

In 1919, she married Jean Hugo, a painter and theatre designer descended from the famed writer Victor Hugo. Together, they hosted salons with the artistic and intellectual avant-garde of Paris. Reaching a new height of recognition in recent years, her work is held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and The Museum of Modern Art, New York, among many others.