Claude Lalanne

Born in Paris in 1924, Claude LALANNE was one of the art world's longest-standing surrealist pioneers. Her work is both striking and accessible, possessing a whimsical, seductive and delicate beauty as well as a utilitarian function. She designed windows for Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent commissioned her to create sculpted busts and waists in bronze for his A/W69 Haute Couture collection, which fitted over billowing blue dresses dubbed 'Les Robes Lalanne'.

Lalanne drew uncanny inspiration from natural forms. In her atelier in Ury (near Fontainebleau, south of Paris), with doors open wide to her garden dotted with life-size bronze Les Lalanne animal sculptures and furniture, she transformed ephemeral shapes of flora and fauna into lasting gems via a hand electroplating process. Prior to her passing in 2019, Lalanne’s jewelry was created meticulously one by one, and only by hand. Therefore, an original Claude Lalanne original prior to 2019, notably the pieces from the 1980s and 1990s are always rare and cherished by collectors as this had been the golden era of the artist’s work.