Nicholas Savard

Ink Sketch on Ingres Paper Attributed to Francois- Xavier Lalanne

Ink Sketch on Ingres paper attributed to François-Xavier Lalanne. Titled Hippopotame Baignoire ("Hippopotamus Bathtub").

France, Circa 1968-69

24.5" High by 30.5" Wide (Framed)

About the Artist

François-Xavier Lalanne (1927–2008) was a French sculptor whose whimsical, surrealist-inflected animal forms — sheep, rhinoceroses, apes, birds, and hippopotami rendered as functional furniture and fixtures — made him one of the most distinctive figures in postwar French design. Born in Agen, he trained at the Académie Julian in Paris, where he came into contact with Surrealists including Man Ray, Max Ernst, and Marcel Duchamp, encounters that would shape his lifelong fascination with the animal kingdom as a source of form. In 1956 he met the sculptor Claude Lalanne, whom he married; together, working independently but exhibiting jointly as "Les Lalanne," they built a body of work prized for merging sculpture with everyday utility — a sheep you could sit on, a hippopotamus that concealed a bath. Their earliest patrons included Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, and their work is now held in the permanent collections of the Centre Pompidou, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, among others. Lalanne's Hippopotame sculptures remain among his most sought-after works, regularly commanding seven-figure results at auction.