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a bronze sculpture of a bear standing on its hind legsa close up of a sculpture of a bear on a tablea bronze sculpture of a bear standing on its hind legsbronze sculpture of a bear sitting on its hind legsbronze sculpture of a bear standing on its hind legsa bronze statue of a bear standing on its hind legsa bronze statue of a bear sitting on top of a tablebronze sculpture of a bear standing on its hind legs on a wooden basebronze sculpture of a bear standing on its hind legssculpture of a bear standing on a wooden basesculpture of a bear standing on its hind legs on a wooden basean image of a bronze statue of a person ' s foot on a wooden surfacea close up of a sculpture of a bear on a tablesculpture of a bear head on a wooden basesculpture of a black bear sitting on top of a wooden table
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225 - François-Xavier Lalanne (1927–2008)
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Estimate €200,000 - €300,000
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Description
François-Xavier Lalanne (1927–2008) Little Bear Design created in 1984–1985; our example cast on 22 October 1986 Bronze with a brown patina Signed with the monogram ‘FXL’ and stamped ‘LALANNE’ Bears the foundry mark ‘BOCQUEL / FONDEUR’ Numbered ‘1/8’ H. 50 x W. 24.5 x D. 20 cm Provenance: Acquired from the artist; passed down through the family THE CONDITION OF THE LOTS IS NOT SPECIFIED IN THE CATALOGUE ENTRIES. Please contact us to obtain a condition report: [email protected] PLEASE NOTE: there is no online bidding for this lot. Please contact us to place a bid: [email protected] A deposit will be required. Other examples listed: -François-Xavier Lalanne, Petit Ours, 1996, patinated bronze, monogrammed ‘FXL’, stamped ‘LALANNE’, dated ‘1996’ and numbered ‘HC 00/00’, H. 50 x W. 25 x D. 25 cm, Sotheby’s Paris auction, 4 November 2021, lot 65; -François-Xavier Lalanne, Petit Ours, 1994, patinated bronze, monogrammed ‘FXL’, stamped ‘LALANNE’, numbered ‘EA 4/4’, H. 51 x W. 25 x D. 25 cm, Sotheby’s Paris auction, 28 May 2109, lot 188; -François-Xavier Lalanne, Petit Ours, circa 1996, patinated bronze, monogrammed ‘FXL’, stamped ‘LALANNE’, numbered ‘5/8’, H. 50 x W. 25 x D. 25 cm, Besch Cannes Auction, Cannes, 28 April 2024, lot 122. Related works: -François-Xavier Lalanne, Très Grand Ours, 2009, bronze, patinated, ‘FXL’ monogram, marked ‘LALANNE’, dated ‘2009’, numbered ‘6/8’, inscribed ‘bocquel fd’, H. 315 x W. 148 x D. 151 cm, exhibition ‘Les Lalanne à Trianon’, Versailles, Palace of Versailles, June–November 2021, auction at Christie’s Paris, 10 October 2024, lot 20; -François-Xavier Lalanne, Petite ourse, bronze, numbered ‘3/8’, H. 53.5 x W. 23 cm, Beauvais, Mobilier national, inv. GMLC 817. Related literature: -Robert Rosenblum, *Les Lalanne*, exhibition catalogue, Château de Chenonceau, 7 June–3 November 1991, Geneva, Skira, 1991, model illustrated on p. 60; -Daniel Marchesseau, *Les Lalanne*, Paris, Flammarion, 1998; -Christiane Naffah-Bayle, Pauline Sombstay, *L’esprit et la main: héritage et savoir-faire des ateliers de restauration du Mobilier national*, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Galerie des Gobelins, 27 March–13 December 2015, Paris, Gourcuff Gradenigo, 2015, p. 82; -Jean-Gabriel Mitterand, Laurent Salomé, *Les Lalanne à Trianon*, exhibition catalogue, Versailles, National Museum of the Palace of Versailles and Trianon, June–November 2021, Paris, Editions du Regard, 2021; -Paul B. Franklin, *The Lalanne: Zoophites: from the collection of Caroline Hamisky Lalanne*, exhibition catalogue, New York, Kasmin, 4 April–9 May 2024. Our ‘Petit Ours’, bearing the number ‘1/8’, was cast by the Bocquel foundry on 22 October 1986. With a slightly nuanced brown patina, the cast is characterised by deep, sharp and geometric chiselling that emphasises the attentive gaze and sharp claws, whilst highlighting the volumes of the animal’s massive musculature. Created around 1984–85, the Little Bear dates from a period of intense activity for François-Xavier Lalanne. Together with his wife, he exhibited at the Daniel Templon Gallery, the Artcurial Gallery and, on three occasions, in the United States. Lalanne then turned towards a more figurative style of animal sculpture, which took him away for a time from creating furniture ensembles. His fantastical and poetic bestiary grew to include new works (The Wapiti, The Goldcrest, and Bibi and Loulou, the two family dogs). Whilst the charming lightness of Lalanne’s works is reminiscent of René Magritte’s reverie or the marvellous strangeness of Lewis Carroll, the artist also draws on meticulous craftsmanship, conscientious skill and a rigorous observation of nature. Fascinated by the ability of wild animals to blend into nature through stillness, he quotes from the memoirs of the cook of the famous Karen Blixen, who lived in close contact with African wildlife: ‘(…) The proof that wild animals live in direct contact with God is their capacity for stillness. (…) I was struck by this sentence like Saint Paul on the road to Damascus; I was struck dumb.” Or again: ‘(…) I find them (wild animals) more agile when they are motionless (…) No domestic animal is capable of standing as silently, as motionlessly, as a wild animal.’ This is undoubtedly what François-Xavier Lalanne had in mind when he conceived his Bear, standing on its hind legs, frozen, perfectly still, ears pricked, sniffing the air, perhaps on the lookout at the edge of a clearing, observing its surroundings. During the open-air exhibition ‘Les Lalanne à Trianon’ in 2021, this is how the Very Large Bear was presented, towering over a flock of sheep, ewes and lambs. Lalanne carefully studied the anatomy of each animal, drawing on his extensive photographic documentation and visiting the zoo or the Jardin des Plantes. Like his illustrious predecessors Barye and Pompon, he drew, sketched in clay and, through plaster models, sought to capture the centre of gravity, the overall appearance, the silhouette and the precise posture of the animal in its attentive stillness. Lalanne is not an artist of movement; he seeks to capture the ‘soul’ of each of these fabulous animals in the stillness that, paradoxically, makes them more visible, more alive. Thus, for him: ‘(…) Art could be when a completely inert material, such as a piece of bronze, plaster or stone, acquires a life of its own, equivalent to that of an animal’.”
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About the sale M. COLLECTION
Auction location
Auction time 10/24/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits:
Artemis Auctions and Eddy Ouvrard
See original version (French)
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