In the words of François-Xavier Lalanne: “The animal world has the richest and most varied forms on the planet.” The artist created a bestiary to adorn parks and gardens. The influence of François Pompon can be clearly seen in his animal statues. With their elegant, minimalist curves, his pieces ref...
In the words of François-Xavier Lalanne: “The animal world has the richest and most varied forms on the planet.” The artist created a bestiary to adorn parks and gardens. The influence of François Pompon can be clearly seen in his animal statues. With their elegant, minimalist curves, his pieces reflect a search for deep simplicity. The bronze animals are life-size or oversized. Lalanne also drew inspiration from ancient and Egyptian sculptures, with painstaking details. Three of his pieces can be found on the sculpture path: Grande Carpe, Âne attelé and Grand Ours.
François-Xavier Lalanne is a French sculptor and engraver born in Agen in 1927. He died in Ury (Seine-et-Marne) in 2008. He studied drawing, painting, and sculpture at the Académie Julian in Paris, where he rubbed shoulders with the likes of René Magritte, Salvador Dalí, and Constantin Brancusi – who occupied a workshop next door to his in Paris. After focusing first on painting, he became famous as a decorator and then a sculptor, working solo and also on joint creations with his wife Claude Lalanne. He took his inspiration from nature to create a bestiary, with a particular predilection for sheep. He turned animals into original pieces of furniture. A rhinoceros became a brass desk, sheep became chairs or benches, he turned a baboon into a fireplace, a hippo into a bathtub... Prestigious collectors such as the Rothschilds, the Noailles, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé helped establish his international renown.
