Claude Lalanne

Commissioned directly from Claude Lalanne in 2012 by the present owner

Pierre Passebon, Jacques Grange, Oeuvres récentes, Paris, 2021, pp. 294-295, illustrated in colour

Claude Lalanne’s Unique Structure Végétale Bed, commissioned by Pauline Karpidas, is a fusion of nature, surrealism, and personal sanctuary. Rendered in gold patinated bronze, the bed appears to have grown organically from the earth itself - its canopy unfurling into a fantastical arbor of sculpted branches and leaves. Amid this dreamlike flora perches an owl, quietly watching, its presence at once whimsical and charged with symbolic depth. This is not merely a place of rest; it is a living sculpture, a space of transformation. And in its genesis lies the story of a collector who did not simply acquire art but lived within it.

Karpidas, a revered collector of postwar and contemporary art, cultivated genuine relationships with the artists she championed. Her patronage of Claude Lalanne exemplifies a collecting practice rooted in intuition and dialogue rather than fashion or market trends. This commission, recalls another iconic moment in the history of female collectors: Peggy Guggenheim’s 1940s commission of a brass bed by Alexander Calder for her Venetian palazzo. Guggenheim’s bed - a lyrical construct of wire and metal - embodied the surreal, animated spirit of Calder’s work, while reflecting Guggenheim’s refusal to separate art from life.

Both Guggenheim and Karpidas collecting practices were led not by consensus or prestige, but by curiosity, conviction, and an eye for the singular. In their respective times, each was ahead of the curve. Guggenheim supported avant-garde artists like Max Ernst, Jackson Pollock, and Calder long before they were celebrated names. Similarly, Karpidas’ collection reflects a fiercely independent sensibility. Her affinity for Claude Lalanne’s work—so lyrical, eccentric, and intimate—underscores this instinctive, emotionally driven approach to collecting.

Like Calder’s surreal bed for Guggenheim, Lalanne’s Structure Végétale bed for Karpidas transcends functionality. It is a space transformed, a domestic object turned stage for reverie. The inclusion of the owl imbues the piece with quietly potent symbolism. In Surrealist art, owls are often emblematic of the unconscious, transformation, and ancient wisdom. Their nocturnal gaze aligns with the movement’s fascination with the hidden and the dreamlike. Though owls are rare in Lalanne’s broader oeuvre, here the bird becomes a guardian of sleep and dreams perched among the bed’s twisting branches, a silent witness to vulnerability and rest.

This gesture reflects Lalanne’s signature ability to fuse flora and fauna into surreal domestic poetry. Her furniture resists categorization, hovering between sculpture and utility, fantasy and function. The owl’s presence deepens this ambiguity. It evokes the watchful protectors of myth and the hybrid beings of Leonora Carrington’s dreamscapes - figures who exist between nature and artifice, reality and dream.

For Karpidas, inviting Lalanne to create such a bed was not simply a commission—it was an act of trust and collaboration. The result is a work that is both sculptural and psychological, deeply embedded in the symbolic language of its maker but also shaped by the intimacy of its destination. Much like Guggenheim, who placed her artists’ works not only in her collection but in her bedroom, Karpidas’s home became a site of creative dialogue. In doing so, she followed in the footsteps of collectors who did not just preserve culture but shaped it.

The Structure Végétale bed stands as a testament to that legacy. It is the culmination of a relationship between two women: one who forged a world in bronze and leaves, the other who made space for that world to take root. In this lyrical bed, we see not just Lalanne’s mastery, but Karpidas’ own vision, one defined by passion, trust, and the enduring belief that art belongs not just on the wall, but in the very fabric of life.

This lot is sold with a certificate of authenticity from the artist dated February 15th, 2012.