Claude Lalanne

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner

Les Lalanne, exhibition catalogue, Centre National d'Art Moderne, Paris, 1975, pp. 21, 41

Robert Rosenblum, Les Lalanne, Geneva, 1991, p. 19

Daniel Marchesseau, Les Lalanne, Paris, 1998, pp. 4-5, 62

Daniel Abadie, Lalanne(s), Paris, 2008, pp. 77, 79, 305

Les Lalanne, exhibition catalogue, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 2010, pp. 36, 39, 128

Adrian Dannatt, François-Xavier & Claude Lalanne: In the Domain of Dreams, New York, 2018, pp. 166, 168-169, 184

Deeply personal yet profoundly surreal, Claude Lalanne’s Caroline Enceinte beautifully melds botanical and bodily forms in a striking expression of life and transformation. Molded from the body of her eldest daughter, Caroline, during her first pregnancy, the cabbage, a recurring motif in Lalanne’s work, evokes themes of maternity, growth, and nourishment while the human form grounds the metaphor in emotional immediacy.

Human bodies are rare in Lalanne’s oeuvre. While she frequently cast leaves, branches, and animal forms, her use of the female body is exceptional, especially in such an intimate and autobiographical context. One of Lalanne’s most poignant sculptures, Caroline Enceinte is rare in subject, deeply personal in origin, and quietly powerful in its symbolism. The result is quietly powerful: a maternal figure at once surreal and grounded, mythic and familiar.

When considered alongside the unique Choupatte in Pauline Karpidas’ collection, it becomes part of a larger narrative: a symphony of forms in which life, whimsy, and transformation converge. These sculptures do more than decorate—they invite contemplation, tenderness, and ongoing discovery. While both series reflect Claude’s interest in hybrid, metamorphic forms, Caroline Enceinte is grounded in human expectancy and maternal symbolism. Their shared motifs - bodily imprint, transformation, and the interplay of human and vegetal - reveal Lalanne’s fascination with hybridity on multiple levels. In one work, cabbage becomes body, in the other, body becomes cabbage. Together, they speak to the artist’s enduring ability to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary, with a blend of wit, intimacy, and poetic resonance.