Jean Hugo  (1894-1984), a French painter, illustrator, and theatre designer, great-grandson of Victor Hugo, known for his versatile style blending magical realism with precise landscapes, influential in Parisian interwar art circles alongside figures like Cocteau and Picasso,
Born in Paris, part of a famous artistic family, he worked throughout the 20th century. Moved between Cubism, primitivism, and realism, influenced by Rousseau, Picasso, and Fra Angelico, creating magical scenes and realistic landscapes. Created oil/gouache paintings, illustrations for authors like Radiguet and Cocteau, and designs for theatre, often depicting fantastical elements like centaurs. Associated with the avant-garde, including Cocteau, Satie, and members of the Noailles family.
Hugo is predominantly known for his sketches and oil or gouache paintings, which are often executed in small formats. He also illustrated books, designed theatre sets and costumes and produced ceramics, murals, textile designs and stained-glass windows.
Jean Hugo's painting is unique in the artistic panorama of the first half of the 20th century and maintains originality while evoking avant-garde themes of magical realism or metaphysical painting.[citation needed] At the start of the 1930s, in between naïve and happy scenes and various theatrical projects – such as Jean Cocteau's Les mariés de la Tour Eiffel – he produced a series of works in brooding, unsettling, tones (Solitude, 1933).
He showed an interest in forest scenes (L'Ermite de Meudon, 1933) and religious themes (La Cène, 1933). L'Imposteur (1931) and La Baie des Trépassés (1932) were produced in the same period. His painting were based on the sketchbooks that he had with him at all times. He used to say that "Inspiration comes naturally but one has to arrange regular meetings with it". 
£345