Poulenc’s correspondence with his close friend Genevieve Sienkiewicz evokes the process of writing Human Figure. Retired to Beaulieu, he wrote to his friend in August 1943: “I am working on an a capella cantata on Eluard’s poems. (…) I’ve already done 3/4 of this cycle and am not dissatisfied. He recalls the sad apartment where he resides in Beaulieu with a view of the bell tower and says “It is by contemplating it, solid and so French, that I designed the music of “Liberty” , wich closes the cantata. The publisher Paul Rouart agreed to publish the work despite the Occupation and shipped it to London, allowing its creation by 1945 on the BBC. It is the composer’s absolute masterpiece.