GAINSBOURG Serge (1928-1991)

Lot 61
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Estimation :
4000 - 5000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 4 613EUR
GAINSBOURG Serge (1928-1991)
AUTHORIZED MANUSCRIPT of aphorisms, and partly autographed TAPUSCRIT, Ecce homo; 1 page in-4, and 4 pages in-4 brochure (slight wetness at the bottom). Nice set of aphorisms. They were published in Au Pays des Malices (Nantes, Le Temps singulier, 1980). The manuscript page contains five aphorisms, some of which are still famous; the third is crossed out. "Love alas never takes only one m,/ typing mistake one writes hatred for love. - Snobbery is a champagne bubble that hesitates between burping and farting". - The lie being an alibi, I don't see what I am accused of. - Who walks his dog is at the end of the leash. - Love is blind and his cane is pink". Ecce homo. The typewritten brochure has many autograph corrections and additions. It is a collection of aphorisms, fragments of dialogue and autobiographical reflections. Oscar Wilde's epigraph has been crossed out and replaced by a quotation from Lichtenberg, which has since been attributed to Gainsbourg everywhere: "Ugliness is superior to beauty because it lasts". This is followed by about twenty entries, most of them corrected, and two strikethroughs. "Lucien [Gainsbourg crossed out and corrected to] GINZBURG...now it's on. I wanted to be called Julien because of Julien Sorel. Then I ran into Lucien Leuwen, another Stendhal hero. That reconciled me with my first name, but finally I chose Serge...-Why Serge? -"Out of nostalgia for a Russia I never knew"...-"I turned my jacket over when I realized it was lined with mink"...-"I'm not from this world. I am not from any world"...-" [I am a Jew. In '42, I had a sheriff's star like this! But crossed out] Jewish is not a religion. No religion grows a nose like that. [I don't have a religion. crossed out]"...Etc. Attached is a photographic portrait by Yannick Couprie. Provenance Sale Sotheby's Paris, May 29, 2013, No. 125.
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