François-Xavier Lalanne

First exhibited in 1965 at the Salon de la Jeune Peinture in Paris, François-Xavier Lalanne’s Moutons have become synonymous with both taste and irreverence in the worlds of art and design. What is possibly his most recognizable body of work, Lalanne’s whimsical wooly sheep began with the french artist wanting to make a statement with something ‘immodest and slightly embarrassing’.

When Lalanne unveiled his first flock over five decades ago, the 24 functional sheep-shaped pieces made of sheepskin and bronze made quite an impression at the Parisian salon. Motivating the conception of his sheep furniture was Lalanne’s desire to bring country life to Paris, a city then on the verge of the May 1968 movement, which was about to shake its conservative core. The success of this first presentation prompted Lalanne to create additional flocks of moutons throughout the 1970s, specially commissioned for private and eminent clients such as Alexandre Iolas, Gunther Sachs, and the Treilles family. 

In the 1970s, in an effort to best equip the sheep to outdoor settings where they were often installed, Lalanne used epoxy stone and created the series known as the Moutons de Pierre, two of which are on offer here. The extraordinary variety of sheep produced by François-Xavier Lalanne, each iteration unique in its creative disposition, have certainly contributed to their increasing desirability over time and have settled in the homes of prestigious second-generation collectors.