Les Lalanne

Who was Les Lalanne?

Les Lalanne are an artist duo comprising married couple François-Xavier Lalanne and Claude Lalanne.

Francois-Xavier Lalanne was born in Agen, France, and received a Jesuit education. At age 18, he moved to Paris and studied sculpture, drawing and painting at Académie Julian. Francois-Xavier rented a studio in Montparnasse, next door to friend Constantin Brâncuși, after completing mandatory military service. Brâncuși introduced Lalanne to artists such as Max Ernst, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, and Jean Tinguely. He met Claude Lalanne at his first gallery show in 1952. The show signified an end of painting for François-Xavier as he and Claude began their career sculpting together.

He became known to the larger public in France in 1976 when the singer Serge Gainsbourg selected a work by Lalanne, the man with the head of a cabbage, for the title and cover of an album in 1976.

In 1983 he was commissioned by the French Ministry of Culture to design new monumental fountains for the square in front of the Hôtel de Ville, Paris, and also to design gardens for the reconstructed Les Halles in the center of Paris.