Serge Gainsbourg's name until he became famous, around 1958 was Lucien Ginsburg.
Lucien Ginsburg was a very talented painter, who started studying in the "Académie Montmartre de peinture" when he was 13. His teachers were André Lhote and Fernand Léger. His greatest influences were Francis Bacon and Paul Klee.
In 1946, Lucien left the Beaux-Arts and started a depression. In 1947 he met Elizabeth Levitsky with whom he got married in 1951.
Life was really hard for Lucien who had to assume his responsabilities as an husband. That's why, after his father's advice, he decided to play in a piano-bar. This is also when he slowly started to mute between the painter Lucien Ginsburg and the musician Serge Gainsbourg.
During a sudden depression, Lucien destroyed almost all of his 400 paintings. His sister Jacqueline and the famous French singer Juliette Gréco have therefore kept some evidences of his unique talent...