Serge Gainsbourg Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Serge Gainsbourg (1928 – 1991) was born on April 2, 1928 in Paris, to a family of Russian Jewish immigrants, painters and musicians. In 1932, ten years after their arrival in France, the family obtained French nationality. Read the full biography

Serge Gainsbourg (1928 – 1991) was born on April 2, 1928 in Paris, to a family of Russian Jewish immigrants, painters and musicians. In 1932, ten years after their arrival in France, the family obtained French nationality. During the Second World War they took refuge in the Sarthe before reaching Limoges. After the war, the family returned to settle in Paris, where Serge Gainsbourg enrolled in the Beaux-Arts. Gainsbourg began in 1954 as a pianist in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Seduced by the realistic verve of Boris Vian, to resist the yéyés years, he adopts a singular, non-conformist style, fueled by double meanings and erotic allusions. The Seventies consecrated this lucid and modern poet with often literary, Anglo-Saxon and mixed influences (L'ami caouette, I came to tell you that I'm leaving, Couleur café...), who wrote for many performers. His feminine passions inspire his cult titles (Je t'aime… moi non plus). In the midst of the disco period, in 1978 he recorded the hit Sea, Sex and Sun for the film Les Bronzés. The following year, his album Auxarmes et cetera was a great success. In the 80s the artist is damaged and deploys a provocative image in the media. He recorded the albums Love on the beat (1984) and You're under arrest (1987) in New York, then released a nine-CD compilation set, De Gainsbourg à Gainsbarre, in 1989. Serge Gainsbourg died in March 1991 in his home in Paris. In 1995 he posthumously obtained the César for best music for the film Élisa by Jean Becker. From a private point of view, after a first marriage in 1951 to Elisabeth Levitsky, he married Françoise-Antoinette Pancrazzi, known as Béatrice, in January 1964. The couple had two children; Natasha (1964) and Paolo (1967). Serge Gainsbourg had a romance with Brigitte Bardot for a few months in 1967. He met the British actress Jane Birkin in 1968 on the set of the film Slogan, with whom he had a daughter, Charlotte, in 1971. The couple became separated in 1980. Subsequently, he lived with the model Bambou, who gave him a son, Lucien, in 1986.