Memories of Juliette Gréco, including an extremely rare painting by Gainsbourg, up for auction in Drouot

Jewelry, furniture and works of art, designer outfits and fashion accessories: in total, more than 750 lots that belonged to Juliette Gréco, who died in September 2020, are being sold by her granddaughter Julie-Amour Rossini with auctioneers Crait and Müller at the Hôtel Drouot (Paris), from Thursday November 18 to Saturday November 20.

Among the scattered memories of the singer, actress and muse of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in the 1950s, one notices, in the middle of a profusion of jewels, a delightful golden address book of Van Cleef & Arpels ( estimated € 2,000 to € 3,000) which unfolds like a fan and on which are written down in his hand the telephone numbers and addresses of his acquaintances at the time, from Françoise Sagan to Philippe Noiret, including Chanel and Jacques Chazot.

Gainsbourg’s contact is also recorded there. The musician had met Juliette Gréco on the radio show welcome in 1959, when she was already a star and he still a singer in the making who led the bohemian life and devoted himself to painting, this art “major“being his”only love“, as he said on this program. Because abeforeabandon the visual arts for the song, Gainsbourg was first a student at the Beaux-Arts and a member of the Académie de Montmartre.

Shortly after their meeting, Serge Gainsbourg had landed at the interpreter of Pretty kid with a gift under his arm: one of his paintings. A real rarity. “He came to my house and said to me: I burned everything, destroyed everything, I give you that. She’s the only one left …“, said Juliette Gréco in 2010.”It is a very touching canvas. He and his sister are little ones in a garden, playing in a sandy alley“, she specified.

Estimated € 30,000 to € 50,000, Children in the Square, signed “Ginsbourg”, is the highlight of this sale and could soar well beyond the estimate.

In fact, Gainsbourg having effectively destroyed most of his paintings at the time, only five of his paintings remain in circulation today, including this one, to which its owner was very fond.

“I love this canvas. She was above my bed but I take her around the house. It’s more than a painting, it’s a part of him“, she confided to José Arthur in 1987. The figure of existentialism and Gainsbourg were friends. In 1963, he had given her another precious gift: the tube Javanese.

The Gainsbourg canvas (33 cm by 45.5 cm) is not, however, the highest price of this sale. A very beautiful brush drawing in India ink on Foujita paper, Little Greco with a cat, which the painter gave as a wedding gift to Juliette Gréco and Philippe Lemaire on June 25, 1953, is estimated at 60,000 to 80,000 €.

The less provided grants may turn to a drawing by Henri Matisse (2,500 to 3,000 €) or an original edition of I’ll go spit on your graves by Vernon Sullivan alias Boris Vian with dedication and pencil drawing by Jean Boullet (1500 to 2000 €).

Music lovers can opt for a letter from Georges Brassens addressed to Juliette Gréco in 1966 (600 to 800 €) or a set of concert tickets and backstage access passes (300 to 400 €). For a personal memory to cherish without losing too much, one will rather seek happiness in the dozens of scarves, gloves and bags (estimated from 30 €).

Succession Juliette Gréco, public auction from Thursday November 18 to Saturday November 20, 2021
(Thursday November 18 at 6 p.m. jewelry sale, Friday 19 at 1:30 p.m. sale of souvenirs, furniture and works of art, Saturday 20 at 1:30 p.m. sale of fashion outfits and accessories)
Free access exhibition from Wednesday 17th until Friday
Hôtel Drouot, 9 rue Drouot Paris 9th, rooms 14 and 15