Smithsonian American Art Museum
Esmeralda
Raffaelo Romanelli, Italian, born Florence, Italy 1856-died Florence, Italy 1928 · ca. 1870-1900
The gypsy girl Esmeralda was the hunchback Quasimodo’s love interest in Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a book so popular that it made a hero out of its author. In the novel, Esmeralda is the victim of a coward’s rage and sentenced to death by hanging, and only the love of the deformed Quasimodo can save her. The story ends when he dies, defending Esmeralda from an angry mob.
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