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Lot Essay
A dedicated gardener, Claude Lalanne delighted in flowers shrubs, trailing vines and small creatures that nibble, slither and scurry in the moist undergrowth. Her fidelity to the subtle realistic surfaces of plants rendered a quiet, sublime dignity to her subjects. She worked ginkgo leaves, hostas, fruits, vegetables and hydrangeas into her functional designs for furniture, jewelry and small decorative objects. Through cast molds and electroplating, she created beautifully oxidized and galvanized surfaces that captured Nature’s perfection and imperfection. Sometimes, she paired these explorations of flora and fauna with fantasy. In her Choupatte series, a leafy cabbage head is raised on spindly chicken’s feet. Her Main Fenouil suggests a vegetal couture glove. Her Pomme Bouche is a luscious object of desire. In these works, surreal transmutations seem to veer into disparate gardens filled with unearthly surprises.
Lighting fixtures are among Claude Lalanne’s most distinctive designs. Sconces, lanterns and chandeliers were a significant part of her artistic repertoire. Some examples explored the curvilinear rhythms of nature through her own intuitive sense of biomorphic beauty and observation. Her chandeliers incorporated motifs such as branches, foliage, butterflies, birds and even scampering mice. The present lot draws comparison to the impressive 1990 chandelier hanging in the grand staircase of the Conseil d’État in Paris.
Composed of two-toned copper and bronze, the present fourteen-light chandelier is delicately cast as an airy matrix of branches scattered with leafy buds. Sophisticated and jewel-like, the work becomes its own preternatural environment, imbued with a sense of spatial grace and whimsical emotion.
Claude Lalanne (née Dupeux) was born in 1925, into an artistic Parisian family. Her father, a self-proclaimed alchemist, inspired her interest in transmutational effects of chemistry and metals. She studied at the École des Arts Décoratifs and at the École des Beaux-Arts and began her partnership with François-Xavier Lalanne in 1956. The Lalannes mixed with many Parisian artists of the mid-20th century; among them were Constantin Brâncuși, Ernst Max and Salvador Dali. These interactions left an indelible mark on the trajectory of the Lalannes’ oeuvre. Moving to the peaceful country side south of Paris, the couple established their studios among the rambling gardens adjacent to the cobbled courtyards of their farm in Ury. This magical, artistic sanctuary provided an ideal environment for their prolific creative production.
Our human need to connect, revealed in our myths and stories, fosters an intimate relationship with nature. The 17th century Italian sculptor, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, wrestled with his extraordinary marble statue of Apollo and Daphne to capture the moment she morphs elusively into branches of a laurel tree. It is the artist who binds memory to the power, beauty and fragility of our natural world. Through her Postmodern sensibility, Claude Lalanne intuitively leads us to this same understanding.
– Karen Hayward, Independent Art Advisor, Academic Lecturer
Lighting fixtures are among Claude Lalanne’s most distinctive designs. Sconces, lanterns and chandeliers were a significant part of her artistic repertoire. Some examples explored the curvilinear rhythms of nature through her own intuitive sense of biomorphic beauty and observation. Her chandeliers incorporated motifs such as branches, foliage, butterflies, birds and even scampering mice. The present lot draws comparison to the impressive 1990 chandelier hanging in the grand staircase of the Conseil d’État in Paris.
Composed of two-toned copper and bronze, the present fourteen-light chandelier is delicately cast as an airy matrix of branches scattered with leafy buds. Sophisticated and jewel-like, the work becomes its own preternatural environment, imbued with a sense of spatial grace and whimsical emotion.
Claude Lalanne (née Dupeux) was born in 1925, into an artistic Parisian family. Her father, a self-proclaimed alchemist, inspired her interest in transmutational effects of chemistry and metals. She studied at the École des Arts Décoratifs and at the École des Beaux-Arts and began her partnership with François-Xavier Lalanne in 1956. The Lalannes mixed with many Parisian artists of the mid-20th century; among them were Constantin Brâncuși, Ernst Max and Salvador Dali. These interactions left an indelible mark on the trajectory of the Lalannes’ oeuvre. Moving to the peaceful country side south of Paris, the couple established their studios among the rambling gardens adjacent to the cobbled courtyards of their farm in Ury. This magical, artistic sanctuary provided an ideal environment for their prolific creative production.
Our human need to connect, revealed in our myths and stories, fosters an intimate relationship with nature. The 17th century Italian sculptor, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, wrestled with his extraordinary marble statue of Apollo and Daphne to capture the moment she morphs elusively into branches of a laurel tree. It is the artist who binds memory to the power, beauty and fragility of our natural world. Through her Postmodern sensibility, Claude Lalanne intuitively leads us to this same understanding.
– Karen Hayward, Independent Art Advisor, Academic Lecturer