Léopoldine Cécile Marie-Pierre Catherine Hugo (; 28 August 1824 – 4 September 1843) was the eldest daughter of

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

and Adèle Foucher.

Early life

Léopoldine was born in Paris, the second of five children and eldest daughter of

and Adèle Foucher. She was named after her paternal grandfather,

Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo, Count Hugo de Cogolludo y Sigüenza (; 15 November 1773 – 29 January 1828) was a French general in the Napoleonic Wars. He was the husband of Sophie Trébuchet and the father of four sons. He is best known f ...

, as was her late brother, Léopold, who died in infancy. Despite her father's growing

anti-clerical Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historically, anti-clericalism in Christian traditions has been opposed to the influence of Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, ...

views, Léopoldine grew up as a devout Catholic. Her

first communion First Communion is a ceremony in some Christian traditions during which a person of the church first receives the Eucharist. It is most common in many parts of the Latin tradition of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Church and Anglican Communion (ot ...

, which took place in September 1836, was a grand affair. Auguste de Châtillon painted a portrait of her for the day, and the

mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

was attended by

Théophile Gautier Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier ( , ; 30 August 1811 – 23 October 1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic. While an ardent defender of Romanticism, Gautier's work is difficult to classify and rema ...

Alexandre Dumas Alexandre Dumas (born Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas , was a French novelist and playwright. His works have been translated into many languages and he is one of the mos ...

, and members of the Hugo family. A banquet was held at her family's Paris residence afterward. Léopoldine had many suitors for marriage including her future husband, Charles Vacquerie, whom she met while on holiday in 1839.

Later life and death

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 The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

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,

. He dedicated numerous poems to the memory of his daughter, notably ''

Demain dès l'aube (English: Tomorrow at dawn) is one of French writer Victor Hugo's most famous poems. It was published in his 1856 collection . It consists of three quatrains of rhyming alexandrines. The poem describes a visit to his daughter Léopoldine H ...

'' and ''À Villequier'' in ''Pauca Meae'', the fourth book of ''

Les Contemplations ''Les Contemplations'' (; ''The Contemplations'') is a song and collection of poetry by Victor Hugo, published in 1856. It consists of 156 poems in six books. Most of the poems were written between 1841 and 1855, though the oldest date from 1830. ...

''. Victor Hugo did not write for several years afterwards owing to the clinical depression he developed following Léopoldine's death.

Notes

External links

* Complete text o
''Contemplations'', on Wikisource
* The Maison Vacquerie, in Villequier, houses th
departemental Museum of Victor Hugo

Hear "Demain, des l'aube" * Léopoldine –

Série Noire Série noire is a French publishing imprint, founded in 1945 by Marcel Duhamel. It has released a collection of crime fiction of the hardboiled detective thrillers variety published by Gallimard. Anglo-American literature forms the bulk of ...

(Swiss popband) , musical version of the poem " Demain, dès l'aube," written by Léopoldine's father

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hugo, Leopoldine 1824 births 1843 deaths 19th-century French women Boating accident deaths Deaths by drowning in France French Roman Catholics French socialites Hugo family People from Paris People of the July Monarchy