From June 19th to November 7th, 2021 The Lalanne at Trianon

From 19 June to 7 novembre 2021, the Palace of Versailles will have the honour of hosting “The Lalanne at Trianon” in partnership with Galerie Mitterrand. This exhibition will present works by sculptors Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne along a visit route that leads from the gardens of the Petit Trianon to the Queen's Hamlet.

The exhibition 

The Palace of Versailles and Galerie Mitterrand are presenting works by sculptors Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne in The Lalanne at Trianon, an exhibition that will extend from the Petit Trianon to the Queen's Hamlet via the English Gardens.

The exhibition will reveal poetic and surrealist animal sculptures in dialogue with the bucolic atmosphere of the location.

It will be an exceptional opportunity to discover some of the couple's major works such as the emblematic Choupatte (Géant), 2016, and the Wapiti (Grand), 1996.

Assisted by the Lalanne family and several collectors, Galerie Mitterrand has chosen a selection of the Lalannes’ sculptures in harmony with the different atmospheres of the Estate of Trianon for an exhibition that showcases an impressively diverse range of the Lalanne’ works made over a period of fifty years.

Lalanne sculptures

Exhibition curators 

Jean-Gabriel Mitterrand 

Laurent Salomé Director of the National Museum of the Palace of Versailles and Trianon.

This exhibition was produced with the support of the Galerie Mitterrand, thanks to the patronage of Dior.

The Lalanne

Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne carried out their work in parallel from the 1950s onwards, drawing their inspiration from nature. Their works are based on playful associations imbued with humour and poetry.

All their lives, the Lalanne paid tribute to nature through their works by evoking fauna and flora in sculpture.

The respective work of Claude Lalanne and François-Xavier Lalanne has almost always been presented opposite each other. But it is indeed two parallel works with their singularity that are exhibited.

Claude Lalanne was trained at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and whose exceptional reputation of her works is now celebrated worldwide. Claude Lalanne's works are made using techniques related to imprinting, casting and electroplating, and she freezes natural forms and instinctively transforms them into sculptures, tables, chairs, benches or mirrors.

François-Xavier Lalanne is convinced that sculpture, and more generally the work of art, can have a function. There is no confusion between their very different approaches to sculpture - moulding and assembly for her, drawing and construction for him - nor between their worlds - classical and architectural for François-Xavier, organic and baroque for Claude.

The bucolic World 

The choice of location is ideal for showcasing the couple’s sculptures on nature seen through fauna and flora. It was here that Marie-Antoinette dreamed of building the hamlet, nestled in a corner of the English Gardens. She built a series of small thatched pavilions designed by the architect Richard Mique, perhaps inspired by the tales of Perrault or the fables of De La Fontaine during the reign of Louis XIV, or the Pre-Romantic walks of Jean-Jacques Rousseau in her own time.

The queen wanted to bring nature to a human scale in harmony with her private dreams and to be able share with it the secrets of her soul. A few years previously, the Petit Trianon, which opens onto the English park on one side, satisfied the same desires for Madame de Pompadour and then Madame Du Barry, with the classical architectural order of Gabriel as the backdrop. 

Discover the Queen's Hamlet

• A guided tour in French is offered free of charge and on reservation with an entrance ticket for the Trianon estate, every weekend.

Discover all the guided tours 

Audio TOUR

An audio guide tour will be available when the exhibition opens and will be downloadable free of charge in the Palace of Versailles app. The app also includes a map to allow you to geolocate yourself in the Estate of Trianon.

Media partnership

This exhibition is produced with the partnership of Beaux Arts Magazine.

Pratical Information

• From June 19th to November 7th, 2021
• From 12pm to 6.30pm, last admission at 6pm  
• In the Petit Trianon and the Queen's Hamlet, access to the Petit Trianon or the Grand Trianon. 
• Download the map of the works.
• The exhibition route of the Lalanne is rural and difficult to access for people with reduced mobility.
• Admission with the "Estate of Trianon" and "Passeport" tickets 

This exhibition was made possible thanks to the support of Galerie Mitterrand and the patronage of Dior.

Buy your tickets

Opening times