Claude Lalanne

Georges Marciano

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, gifted from the above

Acquired from the above by the present owner

Paul Kasmin, Claude & François-Xavier Lalanne: Art, Work, Life, New York, 2012, n.p.

Les Lalanne, exh. cat., Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 2010, pp. 35

Daniel Abadie, Lalanne(s), Paris, 2008, pp. 144 and 150-151 (for a related example)

Les Lalanne on Park Avenue, exh. cat., Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, 2009, n.p. (for a related example)

Les Lalanne at Fairchild, exh. cat., Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, 2010, n.p. (for a related example)

Adrien Dannatt, ed., Les Lalanne: Fifty Years of Work 1964-2015, exh. cat., Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, 2015, pp. 72, 75, 77, 81, 100, 119, 169, 171 and 172 (for a related example)

Adrien Dannatt, François-Xavier & Claude Lalanne: In the Domain of Dreams, New York, 2018, pp. 6, 113 and 114 (for a related example)

Les Lalanne à Trianon, exh. cat., Château de Versailles, Paris, 2021, pp. 49 and 133 (for a related example)

Claude Lalanne's Pomme de Jardin demonstrates the artist's dreamlike and Surrealist sensibility expanded to impressive dimensions. Lalanne drew creative inspiration from the verdant surroundings of her shared residence with her partner François-Xavier in Ury, outside Paris. The apple motif remained a recurring element throughout Lalanne's artistic practice, ranging from the true-to-life Pomme Bouche, wearable Pomme Bouche pin, and horological Pomme-Montre to her expansive vermilion Pomme de Jardin Rouge and bronze iterations Pomme d'Hiver, Pomme de Londres, and Pomme de New York.

Evoking symbolic resonance with Eris' Apple of Discord from Hellenic mythology (marked "for the fairest") and the Garden of Eden's Prohibited Fruit, offering awareness of moral dualities, Pomme de Jardin simultaneously encompasses elegance and disorder, danger and allure. The sculpture's voluptuous silhouette evokes the creative output of Constantin Brancusi, with whom Lalanne and her spouse maintained a friendship during their early Parisian period. The apple subject positions this work in conversation with the late 19th and 20th century European artistic tradition, including Paul Cezanne's painted arrangements, René Magritte's fantastical imagery, or Pablo Picasso's geometric sculptural forms.

Appropriate for exhibition in both enclosed and open-air environments, this apple adapts seamlessly to garden settings and interior spaces alike. Variants of Lalanne's oversized Pommes have been displayed externally at several prestigious locations in recent times, including Manhattan's Madison Avenue, the Château de Versailles, the Domaine du Muy in southern France, and within the artist's personal living and working compound.