Claude Lalanne

Collection of Anne Schlumberger, Tourette-sur-Loupe, France, commissioned directly from the artist, 2002

Thence by descent to the present owners

Daniel Marchesseau, Les Lalanne, Paris, 1998, p. 113 (for a related example)

François-Xavier & Claude Lalanne: Dreams for the Light of Day, exh. cat., Santa Fe, Gerald Peters Gallery, 2000, p. 72 (for a related example)

Daniel Abadie, Lalanne(s), Paris, 2008, pp. 176-177 and 277 (for related examples)

Adrien Dannatt, Les Lalanne, Fifty Years of Work, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, 2015, pp. 160 and 162-165 (for a related example)

Claude Lalanne’s Portes du Jardin stand among the most expressive manifestations of her lifelong dialogue with the natural world. Conceived as sculptural gates, they transform functional architecture into an enchanted threshold where art and nature intertwine seamlessly.

The two gates in the Schlumberger Collection hold an especially intimate history. Uniquely commissioned by Anne Schlumberger in 2002, they were created specifically for her home in the south of France, where she installed them beside the swimming pool—an evocative setting that amplified their lyrical relationship to landscape, water, and light. Each gate features a lizard, bird, butterfly, and mouse discreetly nestled among electroplated branches. These creatures animate the structure with a quiet sense of narrative, conjuring the feeling of a garden alive with hidden movement and small encounters.

To create her botanical works, Lalanne used her signature technique of casting directly from plants. Real stems and foliage were electroplated and preserved with scientific precision, then composed into an airy, sculptural lattice that feels at once natural and dreamlike. This approach underscores Claude’s essential role within the Lalanne universe: while François-Xavier explored transformation and surreal hybrids, she brought forth a quieter, tactile lyricism. The Schlumberger gates embody this sensibility; personal, refined, and unmistakably alive, they invite close looking and serve not only as portals but as sculptural invitations into a world shaped by wonder.