Prints and Authors in the Time of Manet

Lightning (L’Eclair)

Etching, 1868
Museum purchase, 1916.181

This print was published by Philippe Burty (1830–1890) in his Sonnets et Eaux-fortes (Sonnets and Etchings), published December 1868, which contained 40 illustrated poems. Victor Hugo submitted the pen and ink drawing for this print in November 1862 and printmaker Charles Courty faithfully copied it as an etching. The poem which accompanied this design and on which it was based, was written by a personal friend of Hugo, the French novelist and playwright, Paul Meurice (1818–1905).