François-Xavier Lalanne was a French sculptor and installation artist, famous for incorporating animal and mythological imagery into furniture pieces. Throughout his career, Lalanne sculpted a playful menagerie of monkeys, ducks, fish, and especially sheep. Lalanne was born in Paris in 1925 and studied art at the Académie Julian. While in the city, he was introduced to many Surrealist artists, such as Man Ray, Max Ernst, and Marcel Duchamp. In 1956, he met Claude Dupeux, his future wife with whom he would begin working with on installations and sculpture. They would be collectively known as Les Lalannes, and while they created their own works, they shared a common surrealistic practice inspired by animals and plants. François-Xavier Lalanne’s work was celebrated very early on in his career and placed in pre-eminent collections around the work. In 1968 was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and has been the subject of exhibitions in leading institutions around the world, both individually and collectively as Les Lalannes.
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