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Léopoldine Hugo

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Léopoldine Hugo
Portrait of Léopoldine Hugo. Painted by Auguste de Châtillon in 1836, on the day of her first communion.
Born
Léopoldine Cécile Marie-Pierre Catherine Hugo

(1824-08-28)28 August 1824
Died4 September 1843(1843-09-04) (aged 19)
NationalityFrench
Spouse
Charles Vacquerie
(m. 1843)
Parent(s)Victor Hugo
Adèle Foucher

Léopoldine Cécile Marie-Pierre Catherine Hugo (French pronunciation: [leɔpɔldin sesil maʁi pjɛʁ katʁin yɡo]; 28 August 1824 – 4 September 1843) was the eldest daughter of Victor Hugo and Adèle Foucher.

Early life

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Léopoldine was born in Paris, the second of five children and eldest daughter of Victor Hugo and Adèle Foucher. She was named after her paternal grandfather, Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo,[1] as was her late brother, Léopold, who died in infancy.

Despite her father's growing anti-clerical views, Léopoldine grew up as a devout Catholic. Her first communion, which took place in September 1836, was a grand affair. Auguste de Châtillon painted a portrait of her for the day, and the mass was attended by Théophile Gautier, Alexandre Dumas, and members of the Hugo family. A banquet was held at her family's Paris residence afterward.[2]

Léopoldine had many suitors for marriage including her future husband, Charles Vacquerie, whom she met while on holiday in 1839.[3]

Later life and death

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She married Charles Vacquerie at Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis on 15 February 1843, but they both drowned together only a few months later, when their boat overturned on the Seine in Villequier on 4 September 1843. Nineteen years old and pregnant, she died when her wet, heavy skirts pulled her down, and her husband died trying to save her. This tragic event had a great impact on the work and personality of her father, Victor Hugo. He dedicated numerous poems to the memory of his daughter, notably Demain dès l'aube and À Villequier in Pauca Meae, the fourth book of Les Contemplations. Victor Hugo did not write for several years afterwards owing to the clinical depression he developed following Léopoldine's death.

Notes

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  1. ^ Graham, Robb. Victor Hugo: A Biography. W.W. Norton, 1997, p. 682.
  2. ^ Harrison, Carol E. (11 March 2014). Romantic Catholics: France's Postrevolutionary Generation in Search of a Modern Faith. ISBN 9780801470592.
  3. ^ "Léopoldine Hugo Vacquerie Hauteville House Maison d'exil de Victor Hugo à Guernesey".
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