Francis Poulenc completed his Sonate pour violoncelle et piano (Cello Sonata), FP 143, in 1948.

Poulenc lived then in Noizay and worked on the re-writing of his Sextet and the instrumentation of the Cocardes as well as Fiançailles pour rire.

From 18 July 1940, he was demobilized after the armistice, joined a friend in Brive-la-Gaillarde[1] and sketched the cello sonata as well as L'Histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant and Les Animaux modèles.

[1] After World War I, Poulenc wrote several works including a major one, the Figure humaine cantata and Calligrammes, completes at the end of 1948.

[4] Some of his themes recall Les Animaux modèles, a work the composer completed at the time of the sketches of this sonata.