François-Xavier Lalanne

Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne, Ury

Thence by descent to the present owner

For a similar model :

Les Lalanne, exhibition catalogue, Centre national d'art moderne, Paris, June 15 - July 13 1975, p. 45

Les Lalanne, exhibition catalogue, château de Chenonceau, Genova, June 7 - November 3 1991, p. 49, 137

Daniel Marchesseau, Les Lalanne, Paris, 1998, p. 100

Daniel Abadie, Lalanne(s), Paris, 2008, p. 243-245

Les Lalanne à Trianon, exhibition catalogue, Galerie Mitterand, Paris, June 19 - November 7 2021, p. 95, 99

Lalanne Bestiaires, exhibition catalogue, Musée d'art moderne Richard Anacréon de Granville, Paris, 2022, p. 56-57 for a sketch

François-Xavier Lalanne: Measuring the gaze

François-Xavier Lalanne's Canard is a monumental sculpture that questions relationships of scale and the gaze. Here, the modestly proportioned bird becomes an imposing figure, which the artist elevates to the status of an autonomous sculpture. By playing on this difference in size, he introduces a striking contrast between the familiar subject and the artistic object.

The monumentality of the work, far from weighing down the figure, accentuates its presence, lending it to paradoxical elegance, blending power and gentleness. This deliberate amplification of proportions is not simply a play on scale: it shifts our perception, forcing us to reconsider our relationship with the animal figure.

Throughout his career, François-Xavier Lalanne has used the duck in porcelain, plastic, bronze, drawings and engravings. But it's in these variations in scale that he most forcefully reveals his artist's eye: an eye capable of transforming the ordinary into a sculptural presence and turning a duck into an object of contemplation.

The duck is a singular bird... both aerial and aquatic, able to fly as well as swim. Slender wings, webbed feet: everything about it evokes duality, the balance between two worlds.

The sheer scale of François-Xavier Lalanne's Canard redefines the place of the animal, striking a balance between monumentality and refinement of form.