François-Xavier Lalanne

Do you own a work by François-Xavier Lalanne and would you like to know more about its value? Our Experts will carry out a free appraisal of your furniture, to provide you with an estimate of the market price, then assist you to sell at the best price.

Status, estimation and price of the artist François-Xavier Lalanne

Price of a piece of furniture: 10,000 – 800,000 €.

Price of a sculpture: 34,000 – 3,200,000 €.

Estimation of a print: 208 – 2,600 €.

If you would like to have a work by François-Xavier Lalanne appraised, our experts will take care of everything.

Learning and discovery

François-Xavier Lalanne was a French sculptor and engraver born on 28 August 1927 in Agen (Lot-et-Garonne). He died in Seine-et-Marne on 7 December 2008.

From 1949, François-Xavier Lalanne learnt sculpture, painting and drawing from Salvador Dali and René Magritte at the Julian Academy in Paris. In 1952, he had his first painting exhibition.

At the beginning of the 1950s, the House of Dior called upon his talent to decorate the Avenue Montaigne boutique. There he met Yves Saint Laurent, still a young assistant, with whom he worked several times thereafter. The Lalannes are unfairly underestimated by the critics and there are only three works by Lalanne in the Centre Pompidou’s modern art collection. Similarly, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris acquired a Rhinoceros sculpture by François-Xavier Lalanne less than ten years ago. François-Xavier Lalanne plays on the limits between functionality and art. He has reinvented animal sculpture, while giving it a use as we can see with the Rhinosecretaire and the Sardines-canapé.

Consecration and collaboration

In 1956, he signed the jardin des Halles, in collaboration with his partner, Claude Lalanne, she bears the same surname, which he married in 1967. The first exhibition of their collaboration is Rhinocretaire: a bronze desk in the shape of a rhinoceros. Animals are the central theme of his engraved work. He is the creator of the three bronze geese on the goose market square in Sarlat-la-Canéda in the Dordogne.

He died in 2008, but in 2013, Michael Shvo called on Claude Lalanne to install a work by François-Xavier in New York’s Chelsea district. The work transforms an old gas station into fields populated by the sculptor’s sheep. Similarly, the Lalanne couple was the subject of a major retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 2010.

The YSL bar, dating from 1965, sold for $2,753,000, a new record, at the sale of the Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé collection in February 2009 at the Grand Palais.

It amuses me to put a utilitarian dimension into sculpture. Art has been too sanctified in the West. Giving a sculpture a use restores a familiar dimension to it and takes it down a little from its pedestal.

Main works by François-Xavier Lalanne

Brochet (1973)

Grand Bouquetin (2007)

Béliers (1994)

Recognising François-Xavier Lalanne’s signature

Like many artists, FX Lalanne did not sign all of his works. However, you will find below an example of a signature in order to give you a first idea. Variations of this signature exist: do not hesitate to contact one of our experts to authenticate a signature in a formal way.

Appraising and selling a furniture by François-Xavier Lalanne

If you own a furniture or any other sculpture by François-Xavier Lalanne, ask for a free estimate via our online form.

You will then be contacted by a member of our team of experts and auctioneers to give you an independent view of the market price of your furniture. In the event of a sale, our specialists will also advise you on the various options available to sell your work at the best price.