BRASSENS, Georges (1921-1981)

BRASSENS, Georges (1921-1981)

Autograph postcard signed « G Brassens » to the Duvernoy family
Postmark [Sète, 13 Aug. 1968], 1 p. in-8° oblong, in black ink
Cosigned by his muse and mistress Püpchen
On the reverse: a view of the canal, the quays, and the Palais Consulaire in Sète
Superficial marks, corners very lightly rubbed

A charming and rare card from Brassens, sent from his native Sète

« J’espère que vos vacances se passent bien et que vous ne perdez pas trop de temps à la tambouille
Amitiés
G Brassens »

Brassens was born and raised in Sète before leaving for Paris at 18, following a jewel theft affair that earned him a bad reputation. Although he dedicated only one song directly to the town, the Supplique pour être enterré à la plage de Sète (1966), the town and his childhood friends are also said to have inspired Les Copains d’abord (1964), written in memory of a makeshift beach hut on the nearby shore of Balaruc-les-Bains. Brassens now rests at the Le Py cemetery in Sète.

Joha Heiman, known as Püpchen (1911-1999), was Brassens’s companion and Estonian muse. As a source of inspiration, some of Brassens’s finest songs are dedicated to her: Je me suis fait tout petit, Saturne, J’ai rendez-vous avec vous, Rien à jeter. Although lovers, they lived apart and never married. “I have the honor of not asking for your hand,” Georges Brassens writes in his song La Non-demande en mariage (1966), in homage to Püpchen (“little doll” in German, spelled with a single “p” by Georges Brassens, which means “little fart”).

Provenance: Estate of Sophie Duvernoy (1930-2025) A discreet but essential figure in Georges Brassens’s inner circle, Sophie Duvernoy entered his service in 1969, after having worked for the cartoonist Raymond Peynet. She called him “le bon maître” (“the good master”), a nickname Georges Brassens had himself suggested to her, not without mischief, when they first met. Originally from Poland and nine years his junior, she was recruited almost by chance when Peynet moved to settle in the South of France. Brassens was then living in the Le Méridien building on rue Émile Dubois, alongside neighbors and friends such as Jacques Brel. From then on, Sophie accompanied Brassens when he moved to rue Santos-Dumont and quickly established herself as a steady presence in an environment marked by visits from friends and the artistic world. What emerged was a relationship built on trust and the complementary nature of two reserved temperaments. At the heart of this domestic space that had become a place of creation, Sophie Duvernoy took on a central role, ensuring the conditions necessary for the Sète-born poet’s work were preserved. Guardian of the silence, in charge of household matters and dealings with the outside world, she moved in close proximity to Brassens’s creative process without ever disturbing its balance. Her closeness also showed itself through occasional participation in his work. Indeed, she took part in the “chœur des copains” (backing chorus, alongside notably Claudine Caillart, Fred Mella, Joël Favreau, Pierre Nicolas, André Tavernier…) on two songs, Tempête dans un bénitier and Le Roi. After the death of her “bon maître,” she lived in an apartment he had purchased and whose lifetime use he had guaranteed her, testifying to the singular place she occupied, both in his daily life and in close proximity to his artistic creation.