Beschreibung:

Francois-Xavier Lalanne (French, 1927-2008) "Les Deux Capricornes Attables" Table palladium leaf over gilt patinated bronze and glass top monogrammed FXL, stamped LALANNE, dated 2009 and numbered 5/8. h. 29", w. 41-3/8", l. 82-3/4" Provenance: Galerie Mitterrand, Paris, acquired directly from the artist's studio, 2009 by Dr. Nia Terezakis, New Orleans, Louisiana with assistance from Gay Wirth, Wirthmore Antiques, New Orleans, Louisiana. Notes: Premium Lot: You must be pre-approved to bid on this lot. Please contact New Orleans Auction Galleries for more information. "Animals have always fascinated me, perhaps because they are the only beings through whom one can enter into another world." Thus Francois-Xavier Lalanne summed up his lifelong fascination with every sort of animal, the principal if not exclusive subject of his exceptional oeuvre. And to enter into Lalanne's own 'other world' is indeed to find oneself in a magical domain filled with mythical figures whether from Ancient Greek legend or modern celebrity; for Francois-Xavier (or FX as he was oft known), educated by the Jesuits, was as at home with classical literature as the most modish elite, his frame of reference spanning everything from Aeschylus and Ovid to such close friends as Yves St Laurent, the De Menils, Valentino and Marc Jacobs His work was imbued with this animistic spirit of the ancient world, he would often mention the time he spent as a guard at the Louvre where he was in charge of the Apis bull, but it was also part of the Surrealist legacy, of such friends as Max Ernst and Magritte. Thus that opening citation on animals continues in a pleasingly Surreal mood, "Otherwise one is stuck in the human world, in one's own image, like a man ceaselessly pacing in a house lined with mirrors, finding nothing but his own reflection." Of course the reputation and career of FX was intimately linked to that of his wife, the fellow-sculptor Claude Lalanne for from their very first exhibition they had termed themselves as a creative team, 'Les Lalanne', grammatically confusing in French but absolutely logical in every other respect. But though consistently sharing a name and adjoining studios their work was notably, easily identifiably, different and they only actually collaborated on a handful of works together. FX was born in Angers in 1927 to a family that had made its fortune, appropriately enough, in cow bone fertiliser, whilst his father drove the sleekest racing cars, and one could conjour his own aesthetic genealogy from these elements, animal anatomy and modernist engineering, bodywork. After studying painting at l'Academie Julian, where he won first prize as the most promising student of his year, FX began working as an architectural draughtsman for a firm associated with Le Corbusier. Indeed he continued with such drawings, as technical as creative, throughout his career. "It's true that when I sculpt animals I always begin with a drawing in profile, the most obvious way to get a grasp on their volume." And though he abandoned painting after one successful solo exhibition he later created some memorable coloured drawings and prints, "often, on air planes, I sketch whatever comes into my head in little notebooks." He met Claude at the vernissage of this solo show at the Cimaise gallery in 1952 and soon they were living together at the Impasse Ronsin, an infamously bohemian cul-de-sac in Montparnasse, altogether rudimentary if not rustic with one shared lavatory and only an old wood stove for heat. But here their immediate neighbour and friend was none other than Constantin Brançusi, perhaps the greatest sculptor of the 20th century. Their immediate contemporaries included such young artists as Jean Tinguely and Nikki de St Phalle as well as Americans such as William Copley and the sculptor James Metcalf The Impasse had been an artists colony since 1870 and curiously two of its more celebrated earlier residents had been famous American 'animalier' sculp