1887 b. Valentine Marie Augustine Gross. in Boulogne-sur-mer. Daughter of musician Auguste Gross and Zelie Demelin. French Painter and Illustrator.
==1920's== ==1930's== ==1940's== ==1930's== 1907 Studied painting at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. 1909 First watched Sergei Diaghilev's Russian ballet company Ballets Russes ->. She would spend part of the next six years sketching -> Ballet Russes dancers Tamara Karsavina -> and Vaslav Nijinsky ->. 1913 Galerie Montaigne sponsored an exposition of Hugo's sketches in the foyer of the Champs-Elysees theatre on the opening night of Stravinsky's famed ballet Le Sacre du Printemps ->. Became friends with a number of artists including Roger de la Fresnaye ->, Leon-Paul Fargue ->, Erik Satie, and Jean Cocteau. 1917 Met Jean Hugo at the home of Mimi and Cypa Godebski >. 1919 m. Jean Hugo; witnesses Jean Cocteau and Erik Satie. ==1920's== 1921 Workeded with Hugo on designs for ballets including Cocteau's Maries de la Tour Eiffel ->. 1926 began her career with a series of twenty-four wood engravings for an edition of Romeo and Juliet designed by Jean Hugo. Meets Paul Eluard staying friends until his death in 1952. 1928 La Passion de Jeanne D'Arc -> costume designer: Valentine Hugo. Art directors: Hermann Warm and Jean Hugo. Became acquainted with the surrealists, and was an active participant in the surrealist group between 1930 and 1936, taking part in their collective games such as exquisite corpse. She was particularly close to Rene Crevel and Paul Eluard. She then attracted attention with a number of lithographic portraits, of Raymond Radiguet, Princess Bibesco ->, Georges Auric, and others. 1929 Separated from Hugo. ==1930's== 1931 Starts affair with Andre Breton. Contributes to Le Surrealisme au service de la revolution? # 3. Spring Trip to the Midi with Max Ernst and Marie Berthe Aurenche. 1932 Travels with Andre Breton; befriended the rest of the Surrealists, namely Gala and Salvador Dali, Nusch Eluard, Max Ernst, Georges Hugnet, Rene Char, and Tristan Tzara. Divorced Jean Hugo. Illustrations for Les Chants de Maldoror. 1933 illustrations for Achim von Arnim's Contes bizarres. (prefaced by Andre Breton) first exhibited with the surrealists. She was a leading illustrator for texts by Rene Char and Paul Eluard. 1934 Cadavre Exquis with Andre Breton, Paul Eluard and Nusch Spirit of the Sunflower Portrait of Arthur Rimbaud ->. 1935 Queen of Diamonds photo -> by Man Ray. 1937 To Illustrate Paul Eluard's Les Animaux et leurs bomines she used drypoint Her oeuvre has a wide range of portrait drawings and paintings of surrealists and historical personalities such as Arthur Rimbaud and Susana Soca ->. ==1940's== 1940 Briefly worked on Radio-Mondial until the German invasion, by invitation of director Jean Fraysse. 1943 Shows in Exhibition by 31 Women at Peggy Guggenheim's Art of this Century, New York. Her work was not in vain, working on the radio for these six months prepared her for future radio broadcasts in the 1950s and 1960s. 1968 d. Paris. See Valentine Hugo papers -> and work -> and wiki (Fr.) ->. See Timeline