Claude Lalanne’s Choupatte (2014/2017) is an enchanting bronze sculpture depicting an oversized cabbage supported by the legs of a chicken. The title combines the French chou (cabbage) with pattes (animal feet), while echoing choupette (sweetheart), an affectionate diminutive. This linguistic playfulness mirrors the sculpture’s visual wit – a quality that pervades much of Claude’s oeuvre. The sculpture’s verdigris patina gives it an organic appearance, enhanced by the intricate anatomical details she uses to render and veins of the cabbage leaves and scaly texture of the chicken’s legs.

Driven by a sense of spontaneous curiosity, Claude described the genesis of Choupatte: “I had taken a mould of a cabbage and just wondered what it would look like with legs – the moment I saw it, it felt right. It had emotion.” Her husband and long-time collaborator, François-Xavier Lalanne explained that “The cabbage leaf is to Claude what the acanthus leaf was to Greek art!”

Devoid of any practical function beyond its own existence, the creation of the Choupatte sculptures marks a departure from the utilitarian objects for which Claude and François-Xavier were known. The Choupatte embody Claude's fascination with nature, her distinctive sense of humour, her love of the surreal and inspiration from Nouveau Réalisme, and her integration of art into the domestic sphere. By combining precise naturalism with absurdist transformation, Claude’s Choupatte are both endearingly strange and formally sophisticated.