François-Xavier Lalanne French, 1927-2008

François-Xavier Lalanne moved to Paris in his youth to study sculpture, drawing and painting at the Académie Julian and Claude studied architecture in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts and the École des Arts Décoratifs. It was not until he met Claude (née Dupeux) at his first gallery show, that he abandoned painting for sculpture. Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne have been known as ‘Les Lalanne’ since the 1960s, when they got married. Their work is a major retrospective of their work was held in 2010 at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.The Lalannes’ work is represented in many prominent collections around the world, including the National Design Museum, New York; Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York; Musée Nationale d’Art Moderne, Paris; Musée d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris; and the Centre Pompidou, Paris.