French Sculpture
including French-born artists
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Sculpture by painters Children Music and dance Women artists Rodin Degas Gauguin Matisse Klein Lalanne
Chronology : 1902 1920-1929 1927 1959 1960 1970-1979 1976 1978 1990-1999 1996 1997
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Sculpture by painters Children Music and dance Women artists Rodin Degas Gauguin Matisse Klein Lalanne
Chronology : 1902 1920-1929 1927 1959 1960 1970-1979 1976 1978 1990-1999 1996 1997
1902 GAUGUIN
1
Thérèse
2015 SOLD for $ 31M by Christie's
Gauguin's resentment against the establishment was taking the form of insulting provocations. He left Tahiti where he was not any more finding an inspiration to his art and arrived in the Marquesas in September 1901. He soon retrieved the targets of his vituperation : the Catholic clergy and the gendarmes of the French Republic.
Gauguin blamed the Catholics for their hypocritical opposition to sexual freedom and rejoiced about the weaknesses of the prelates. He purchased a piece of land to the local bishop to build his home which he decorated as a temple to pornography under the complacently inscribed name Maison du Jouir (House of orgasm). He bought a young vahine, achieving to generate the total exasperation of the missionaries.
This exiled artist has humor. The best exhibition place in the Maison du Jouir is the door, visible from outside. Around August 1902, Gauguin installs two statues made by him in rosewood in native style. The man, Père Paillard (Father Debauchery), is a caricature of the bishop as a horned devil. The woman, Thérèse, is inspired by the gossip that the servant of the bishop was also his mistress.
On this phallic shaped statue 66 cm high, Thérèse is a nice woman, naked except for a loincloth. With her oversized head increasing her expressive feature, she is a transposition of primitive art to a Western subject. Although the intention of the artist was purely local, appealing beside him the laughers of Atuona, this artwork anticipates the interpretation of African and Oceanian figures by the artists of the twentieth century.
Thérèse was sold for $ 31M from a lower estimate of $ 18M for sale by Christie's on November 9, 2015, lot 5A. Its pendant Père Paillard is kept at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
Gauguin blamed the Catholics for their hypocritical opposition to sexual freedom and rejoiced about the weaknesses of the prelates. He purchased a piece of land to the local bishop to build his home which he decorated as a temple to pornography under the complacently inscribed name Maison du Jouir (House of orgasm). He bought a young vahine, achieving to generate the total exasperation of the missionaries.
This exiled artist has humor. The best exhibition place in the Maison du Jouir is the door, visible from outside. Around August 1902, Gauguin installs two statues made by him in rosewood in native style. The man, Père Paillard (Father Debauchery), is a caricature of the bishop as a horned devil. The woman, Thérèse, is inspired by the gossip that the servant of the bishop was also his mistress.
On this phallic shaped statue 66 cm high, Thérèse is a nice woman, naked except for a loincloth. With her oversized head increasing her expressive feature, she is a transposition of primitive art to a Western subject. Although the intention of the artist was purely local, appealing beside him the laughers of Atuona, this artwork anticipates the interpretation of African and Oceanian figures by the artists of the twentieth century.
Thérèse was sold for $ 31M from a lower estimate of $ 18M for sale by Christie's on November 9, 2015, lot 5A. Its pendant Père Paillard is kept at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
Paul Gauguin's Thérèse sells for $30,965,000 a #worldauctionrecord for a sculpture by the artist. pic.twitter.com/NuEf8SG0Ex
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) November 10, 20152
for reference
Père Paillard
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1927 Petite Danseuse de quatorze ans by Degas (posthumous)
2022 SOLD for $ 42M by Christie's
An original artist with an uneasy temper, Edgar Degas was one of the most innovative graphic artists of the nineteenth century. He knew that he was close to the Impressionists and appreciated their rejection of classicism. His own creative process was very complex, as shown in the example below.
In 1879, Marie draws the attention of the artist. Aged 14, this "petit rat d'Opéra" is an ungrateful teenager, far from physiological maturity, with awkward gestures, but already attracted to her future career as a dancer (which ended before it was to start when she was fired from the dance school for repeated absences).
Degas was a painter, draftsman, sculptor, photographer, printer, but his great art was oil and pastel. He used drawing and sculpture like sketches.
On his first sculpture of Marie, 74 cm high, the girl is naked. This makes sense since the artist wants to study the movements of her body. This is not enough for him. He realized another larger statue in painted wax, a little over 1 m, in the same position, with the unconventional idea to equip it with a dancing dress in cloth and real hair. By its realism that does not reject some ugliness, this portrait of an adolescent girl is indeed a key work of modern sculpture.
As in his many pastels of ballerinas, Degas captures a moment of life which is neither from the performance nor relaxed, which may be a reverie or an exhaustion.
After much hesitation, he shows his Petite danseuse de quatorze ans at the Impressionist exhibition of 1881. After this unique event and until his death in 1917, no sculpture of the master will be exhibited.
Degas had considered that his waxes were too fragile for preparing bronze casts. In 1918 his heirs contracted Adrien Hébrard to produce limited bronze editions of all seventy-four wax sculptures found during the posthumous inventory.
Hébrard worked often on request from collectors. The first complete set of bronzes was finished in 1921. This activity made the founder busy up to 1938 including a total 29 casts of the Petite Danseuse.
Petite danseuse de quatorze ans was edited by Hébrard in bronze with muslin skirt and satin hair ribbon.
A bronze 103 cm high not including the wooden base was sold for $ 42M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 2C. This copy with brown patina was cast in 1927 by Hébrard in commission from a US collector. It is fitted with the usual muslin skirt and satin hair ribbon of that model.
A copy with a provenance history beginning in the 1930s was sold for £ 13.3M by Sotheby's on February 3, 2009, lot 8.
Another example with no reference on the possible date was sold by Sotheby's for £ 15.8M on June 24, 2015, lot 14. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 13, 2022
#AuctionUpdate From the Anne H. Bass Collection, Edgar Degas’s ‘Petite danseuse de quatorze ans’ broke the auction record of the artist tonight; price realized $41.6 million
In 1879, Marie draws the attention of the artist. Aged 14, this "petit rat d'Opéra" is an ungrateful teenager, far from physiological maturity, with awkward gestures, but already attracted to her future career as a dancer (which ended before it was to start when she was fired from the dance school for repeated absences).
Degas was a painter, draftsman, sculptor, photographer, printer, but his great art was oil and pastel. He used drawing and sculpture like sketches.
On his first sculpture of Marie, 74 cm high, the girl is naked. This makes sense since the artist wants to study the movements of her body. This is not enough for him. He realized another larger statue in painted wax, a little over 1 m, in the same position, with the unconventional idea to equip it with a dancing dress in cloth and real hair. By its realism that does not reject some ugliness, this portrait of an adolescent girl is indeed a key work of modern sculpture.
As in his many pastels of ballerinas, Degas captures a moment of life which is neither from the performance nor relaxed, which may be a reverie or an exhaustion.
After much hesitation, he shows his Petite danseuse de quatorze ans at the Impressionist exhibition of 1881. After this unique event and until his death in 1917, no sculpture of the master will be exhibited.
Degas had considered that his waxes were too fragile for preparing bronze casts. In 1918 his heirs contracted Adrien Hébrard to produce limited bronze editions of all seventy-four wax sculptures found during the posthumous inventory.
Hébrard worked often on request from collectors. The first complete set of bronzes was finished in 1921. This activity made the founder busy up to 1938 including a total 29 casts of the Petite Danseuse.
Petite danseuse de quatorze ans was edited by Hébrard in bronze with muslin skirt and satin hair ribbon.
A bronze 103 cm high not including the wooden base was sold for $ 42M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 2C. This copy with brown patina was cast in 1927 by Hébrard in commission from a US collector. It is fitted with the usual muslin skirt and satin hair ribbon of that model.
A copy with a provenance history beginning in the 1930s was sold for £ 13.3M by Sotheby's on February 3, 2009, lot 8.
Another example with no reference on the possible date was sold by Sotheby's for £ 15.8M on June 24, 2015, lot 14. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 13, 2022
#AuctionUpdate From the Anne H. Bass Collection, Edgar Degas’s ‘Petite danseuse de quatorze ans’ broke the auction record of the artist tonight; price realized $41.6 million
- Edgar Degas's "Petite danseuse de quatorze ans," a bronze sculpture from 1878-1881 depicting a young ballerina in real clothing, shattered the artist's auction record at $41.6 million during Christie's May 2022 sale from the Anne H. Bass Collection, exceeding its $20-30 million estimate.
- The original wax version, exhibited in 1881, sparked controversy for its unflinching realism, portraying 14-year-old Marie van Goethem with a tulle skirt, linen bodice, and hair ribbon, challenging 19th-century ideals of beauty.
- This cast, one of 28 bronzes produced posthumously from Degas's waxes, highlights the sculpture's enduring appeal, with prior sales like a 2015 Sotheby's example at $30.8 million underscoring rising demand for Impressionist works.
#AuctionUpdate From the Anne H. Bass Collection, Edgar Degas’s ‘Petite danseuse de quatorze ans’ broke the auction record of the artist tonight; price realized $41.6 million pic.twitter.com/Dn4JLCbWTB
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) May 12, 2022
KLEIN
1
1959 Sculpture Eponge
2013 SOLD for $ 22M by Sotheby's
From 1956 Yves Klein challenges the relationship between the artist and the viewer. His Monochromes can not evoke any kind of figuration. As with Mondrian, the perfectly applied layer is hardly disturbed by an effect from the brush.
Klein was too ahead of his time. Visitors to his early exhibitions acclaimed the colors as if they were in a decorator's shop. The artist is upset by this interpretation. Henceforth all his monochromes must be in intense blue. He patents his pigment, the IKB (Yves Klein Blue).
He is now able to display unreachable or intangible elements like sky and sea. He does not stop at the immaterial in his simulation of the universe. Sponges, fire, monochromes and anthropométries will gradually be the components that will allow him to visualize his metaphysics.
His cosmographic approach is thus a patchwork of series carefully numbered behind a prefix, culminating in the final months of his short life in a sublime synthesis of universe, elements and life. The series of Sculptures Eponges (SE) was developed in 1959. It should not be confused with the Reliefs Eponges (RE).
The sponge is an essential step in his progress. It has the great quality in the process of the artist to immediately imbibe the beautiful IKB. This working tool is now a piece of art in its own right that can evoke figurative themes through its rough texture.
SE 168 is a very early example of the Sculptures Eponges, displayed in the seminal solo exhibition on that theme by Iris Clert in 1959. An accumulation of IKB sponges embellished with voids and cracks form a flower, mounted on a winding metal rod stuck in a stone base to ensure stability. This flower could be compared with a Calder mobile. Its 1.13 m high overall size is exceptional in that series. It was sold for $ 22M by Sotheby's on May 14, 2013, lot 12.
Klein was too ahead of his time. Visitors to his early exhibitions acclaimed the colors as if they were in a decorator's shop. The artist is upset by this interpretation. Henceforth all his monochromes must be in intense blue. He patents his pigment, the IKB (Yves Klein Blue).
He is now able to display unreachable or intangible elements like sky and sea. He does not stop at the immaterial in his simulation of the universe. Sponges, fire, monochromes and anthropométries will gradually be the components that will allow him to visualize his metaphysics.
His cosmographic approach is thus a patchwork of series carefully numbered behind a prefix, culminating in the final months of his short life in a sublime synthesis of universe, elements and life. The series of Sculptures Eponges (SE) was developed in 1959. It should not be confused with the Reliefs Eponges (RE).
The sponge is an essential step in his progress. It has the great quality in the process of the artist to immediately imbibe the beautiful IKB. This working tool is now a piece of art in its own right that can evoke figurative themes through its rough texture.
SE 168 is a very early example of the Sculptures Eponges, displayed in the seminal solo exhibition on that theme by Iris Clert in 1959. An accumulation of IKB sponges embellished with voids and cracks form a flower, mounted on a winding metal rod stuck in a stone base to ensure stability. This flower could be compared with a Calder mobile. Its 1.13 m high overall size is exceptional in that series. It was sold for $ 22M by Sotheby's on May 14, 2013, lot 12.
2
1960 Le Rose du Bleu (RE 22)
2012 SOLD for £ 23.5M by Christie's
Yves Klein was spreading his color on canvas. Suddenly, like Kandinsky discovering by chance (according to legend) that he had just invented abstract art, Klein is rising to the rank of a basic artistic figure a sponge soaked with paint which he just used.
Thus began around 1959 the series of RE (Reliefs Eponges) : transforming his panels into sculpture, the artist stages sponges and pebbles on a flat surface in a composition that remains beautifully monochrome.
In that RE series, Klein proposes a cosmic meaning. A sponge is shaped like an asteroid which was not altered by an atmosphere.
His monochromes are the elements of a trinity. His colors were the IKB, the madder pink and the gold. More appealing than the three classical primary colors, these colors express separately the properties of the universe before being mixed by the action of water and fire.
He then creates a new world full of these strange figures pushing him in the following of the mineral landscapes of Tanguy. But Tanguy died in 1955, and the space conquest had meanwhile generated its imaginary craters and lifeless rocks.
In 1961 in Krefeld, an exhibition demonstrates the clash of colors of Klein's trinity by attributing a different room to each color. Two artworks made in 1960 are particularly highlighted. Both were made in dry synthetic resin, natural sponges and pebbles on board.
The blue room is dominated by Archisponge, 200 x 165 cm, which was sold for $ 21.4M by Sotheby's in 2008.
On June 27, 2012, Christie's sold for £ 23.5M the masterpiece of the pink room, 199 x 153 x 16 cm, lot 9. Its mysterious title, Le Rose du Bleu, does not doubt the purity of the madder pigment but reveals that the artist attempts a unified vision of his Pink with the immaterial symbol of his basic Blue. Please watch the video prepared by Christie's.
Archisponge RE 11 was sold for $ 21.4M on November 11, 2008 by Sotheby's, lot 12. This artwork on panel 200 x 165 cm executed in 1960 in IKB, sponges and pebbles had been the masterpiece of the blue room in the 1961 Krefeld exhibition. That central room was flanked by the pink and gold rooms. Le Rose du bleu, of same size and technique as the Archisponge, was the flagship the pink room. The artist had of course be the designer of that arrangement. Nevertheless his proposal for a performance of his own Symphonie Monotone Silence during the opening day was not retained.
Thus began around 1959 the series of RE (Reliefs Eponges) : transforming his panels into sculpture, the artist stages sponges and pebbles on a flat surface in a composition that remains beautifully monochrome.
In that RE series, Klein proposes a cosmic meaning. A sponge is shaped like an asteroid which was not altered by an atmosphere.
His monochromes are the elements of a trinity. His colors were the IKB, the madder pink and the gold. More appealing than the three classical primary colors, these colors express separately the properties of the universe before being mixed by the action of water and fire.
He then creates a new world full of these strange figures pushing him in the following of the mineral landscapes of Tanguy. But Tanguy died in 1955, and the space conquest had meanwhile generated its imaginary craters and lifeless rocks.
In 1961 in Krefeld, an exhibition demonstrates the clash of colors of Klein's trinity by attributing a different room to each color. Two artworks made in 1960 are particularly highlighted. Both were made in dry synthetic resin, natural sponges and pebbles on board.
The blue room is dominated by Archisponge, 200 x 165 cm, which was sold for $ 21.4M by Sotheby's in 2008.
On June 27, 2012, Christie's sold for £ 23.5M the masterpiece of the pink room, 199 x 153 x 16 cm, lot 9. Its mysterious title, Le Rose du Bleu, does not doubt the purity of the madder pigment but reveals that the artist attempts a unified vision of his Pink with the immaterial symbol of his basic Blue. Please watch the video prepared by Christie's.
Archisponge RE 11 was sold for $ 21.4M on November 11, 2008 by Sotheby's, lot 12. This artwork on panel 200 x 165 cm executed in 1960 in IKB, sponges and pebbles had been the masterpiece of the blue room in the 1961 Krefeld exhibition. That central room was flanked by the pink and gold rooms. Le Rose du bleu, of same size and technique as the Archisponge, was the flagship the pink room. The artist had of course be the designer of that arrangement. Nevertheless his proposal for a performance of his own Symphonie Monotone Silence during the opening day was not retained.
LALANNE
1
1964 Rhinocrétaire
2023 SOLD for € 18.3M by Christie's
After the death of Yves Klein, two couples try to awaken French art. Jeanine de Goldschmidt, companion of Pierre Restany, is the manager of the Galerie J, opened in 1961. The Nouveaux Réalistes movement was ephemeral but opened the way to a playful and heterogeneous art, appropriating the industrial object.
In 1964 at the Galerie J manages in 1964 the Zoophites exhibition is highlighted by François-Xavier Lalanne's Rhinocrétaire in the shop window and by the Choupatte and Montre Oignon of his companion and future wife Claude Lalanne. These biomorphic works can be used as pieces of furniture.
Their conceptions and their product lines are slightly different. François-Xavier maintains the functionality of his models of furniture even when they are zoomorphic. Claude creates decorative objects for the living room or the garden with an unlimited imagination. Before them Fornasetti had changed the decoration of the furniture but not the shape.
The Rhinocrétaire is hiding a desk, a bar, a safe and tubes for holding bottles in the inspiration of the French 18th century meubles à secrets. The seminal example, 145 x 300 x 100 cm extended and 120 x 283 x 70 folded, is made of brass, bronze, zinc, leather, natural wax plus a light source. It was acquired in Galerie J by the mother of Jeanine de Goldschmidt-Restany after the original show. It was sold for € 18.3M from a lower estimate of € 4M by Christie's on October 20, 2023, lot 201.
The world of fashion is charmed by their inventions. Beside the zoomorphic, François-Xavier offers custom furniture in which the unconventional position and shape of cases and pots meets a functional need.
The bar in metal supplied in 1965 to Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé is equipped with an ovoid bottle rack, a shaker in the shape of a cornucopia and a spherical ice bucket. It was sold in February 2009 by Christie's and Pierre Bergé et Associés for € 2.75M.
The drawing board prepared from 1964 to meet the demands of Karl Lagerfeld was delivered to him in 1966. In an inspiration very similar to the YSL bar, this tray with adjustable inclination is equipped with glass and metal containers for pencils and brushes, an adjoining surface for preparing colors, a spherical storage box and a light source. This KL table was sold for € 750K by Sotheby's on May 3, 2018, lot 156.
Grande Carpe is a zoomorphic piece of furniture executed in 1972 by Lalanne in the follow of his seminal Rhinocrétaire. It may be used as a bar or a table. This single copy is made of patinated sheet iron, nickel silver and painted wood. It is 324 cm long and 133 cm high. Its width is 63 cm when closed and 176 cm when unfolded on both sides. It stands on three fins. It was sold for $ 7.4M by Christie's on November 19, 2024, lot 55A.
In 1964 at the Galerie J manages in 1964 the Zoophites exhibition is highlighted by François-Xavier Lalanne's Rhinocrétaire in the shop window and by the Choupatte and Montre Oignon of his companion and future wife Claude Lalanne. These biomorphic works can be used as pieces of furniture.
Their conceptions and their product lines are slightly different. François-Xavier maintains the functionality of his models of furniture even when they are zoomorphic. Claude creates decorative objects for the living room or the garden with an unlimited imagination. Before them Fornasetti had changed the decoration of the furniture but not the shape.
The Rhinocrétaire is hiding a desk, a bar, a safe and tubes for holding bottles in the inspiration of the French 18th century meubles à secrets. The seminal example, 145 x 300 x 100 cm extended and 120 x 283 x 70 folded, is made of brass, bronze, zinc, leather, natural wax plus a light source. It was acquired in Galerie J by the mother of Jeanine de Goldschmidt-Restany after the original show. It was sold for € 18.3M from a lower estimate of € 4M by Christie's on October 20, 2023, lot 201.
The world of fashion is charmed by their inventions. Beside the zoomorphic, François-Xavier offers custom furniture in which the unconventional position and shape of cases and pots meets a functional need.
The bar in metal supplied in 1965 to Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé is equipped with an ovoid bottle rack, a shaker in the shape of a cornucopia and a spherical ice bucket. It was sold in February 2009 by Christie's and Pierre Bergé et Associés for € 2.75M.
The drawing board prepared from 1964 to meet the demands of Karl Lagerfeld was delivered to him in 1966. In an inspiration very similar to the YSL bar, this tray with adjustable inclination is equipped with glass and metal containers for pencils and brushes, an adjoining surface for preparing colors, a spherical storage box and a light source. This KL table was sold for € 750K by Sotheby's on May 3, 2018, lot 156.
Grande Carpe is a zoomorphic piece of furniture executed in 1972 by Lalanne in the follow of his seminal Rhinocrétaire. It may be used as a bar or a table. This single copy is made of patinated sheet iron, nickel silver and painted wood. It is 324 cm long and 133 cm high. Its width is 63 cm when closed and 176 cm when unfolded on both sides. It stands on three fins. It was sold for $ 7.4M by Christie's on November 19, 2024, lot 55A.
2
1976 Hippopotame Bar
2025 SOLD for $ 31.4M by Sotheby's
Compare Rhinoceros and Hippopotamus in the art and career of François-Xavier Lalanne.
François-Xavier Lalanne (1927–2008), one half of the famous French artist duo Les Lalanne (with his wife Claude), is best known for his whimsical, poetic animal sculptures that blur the line between fine art and functional design. Among his most iconic and recurring motifs are the rhinoceros and the hippopotamus, both transformed into surreal, luxurious objects that became signatures of his oeuvre.
1. The Rhinocéros Series (1960s–2000s)
Primary function
Rhino : Bar / secretaire / desk
Hippo : Bathtub or bar
Symbolism
Rhino : Armor-like skin, aggression turned domestic
Hippo : Semi-aquatic, mouth as water source
Frequency of editions
Rhino : Extremely numerous (dozens of variations)
Hippo : Fewer monumental editions
Market recognition
Rhino : The absolute signature Lalanne animal
Hippo : Second most famous, but very close
Price at auction
Rhino : Often higher (Rhinocrétaire record >$10M)
Hippo : Very high, but usually slightly below rhino
Collector appeal
Rhino : Slightly more “art-world” prestige
Hippo : Slightly more “design/decoration” appeal
Humor / absurdity
Rhino : A dangerous beast hiding champagne
Hippo : A hippo you can bathe in
Summary of Their Roles in Lalanne’s Career
Rhinoceros = the origin myth and commercial triumph
Hippopotamus = the extravagant, bathroom-sized punchline
François-Xavier Lalanne (1927–2008), one half of the famous French artist duo Les Lalanne (with his wife Claude), is best known for his whimsical, poetic animal sculptures that blur the line between fine art and functional design. Among his most iconic and recurring motifs are the rhinoceros and the hippopotamus, both transformed into surreal, luxurious objects that became signatures of his oeuvre.
1. The Rhinocéros Series (1960s–2000s)
- First appearance: The rhinoceros entered Lalanne’s work in the early 1960s. The breakthrough piece was Rhinocrétaire I (1964), a life-sized rhinoceros whose body opens to reveal a bar (a “bar secretaire”).
- Concept: A surrealist combination of wild animal ferocity and domestic luxury. The rhinoceros, despite its aggressive reputation, becomes a tame, useful object—a cabinet, a desk, or a bar.
- Key editions and variations:
- Rhinocrétaire I (1966) – bronze, with gilded interior bar
- Rhinocrétaire II (smaller version)
- Rhinoceros II (1990s–2000s) – often in polished bronze or with stone textures
- Grand Rhinocéros Debout (large standing versions)
- Some versions have wheels or openable sides containing sinks, mirrors, or desks
- Materials: Usually patinated or polished bronze, sometimes with added stone or marble elements.
- Cultural impact: The rhinoceros is arguably Lalanne’s most famous single motif. It was collected by Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Bergé, Karl Lagerfeld, and many others. The original Rhinocrétaire I sold for over $10 million at auction in recent years.
- First appearance: The hippopotamus appears later, with the first major piece being L’Hippopotame I (1974), a monumental bronze hippo whose back opens to reveal a bathtub and sink.
- Concept: Like the rhinoceros, the hippo is a massive, potentially dangerous African animal turned into a functional, almost absurdly luxurious bathroom fixture. There are usually three versions:
- Hippopotame I – full bathtub in the body, faucets in the mouth
- Hippopotame II – smaller version with a bar inside (similar concept to the Rhinocrétaire)
- Hippopotame Debout – standing versions, sometimes with opening belly containing a sink
- Materials: Polished or patinated bronze, often with copper or marble details for the bathroom fittings.
- Scale: Often larger than life (the bathtub versions are genuinely usable).
- Cultural impact: Instantly iconic, especially after being photographed in the homes of collectors (e.g., the bathtub hippo in the Paris apartment of Pierre Bergé). Frequently appears in design and contemporary art auctions with prices in the multimillion-dollar range.
Primary function
Rhino : Bar / secretaire / desk
Hippo : Bathtub or bar
Symbolism
Rhino : Armor-like skin, aggression turned domestic
Hippo : Semi-aquatic, mouth as water source
Frequency of editions
Rhino : Extremely numerous (dozens of variations)
Hippo : Fewer monumental editions
Market recognition
Rhino : The absolute signature Lalanne animal
Hippo : Second most famous, but very close
Price at auction
Rhino : Often higher (Rhinocrétaire record >$10M)
Hippo : Very high, but usually slightly below rhino
Collector appeal
Rhino : Slightly more “art-world” prestige
Hippo : Slightly more “design/decoration” appeal
Humor / absurdity
Rhino : A dangerous beast hiding champagne
Hippo : A hippo you can bathe in
Summary of Their Roles in Lalanne’s Career
- The rhinoceros is the earlier, more prolific, and ultimately more iconic motif. It established François-Xavier Lalanne’s reputation in the 1960s and remains the single image most associated with his name.
- The hippopotamus arrived later (1970s) and represents the full maturation of his surrealist-functional idea: taking the largest, most imposing African animals and transforming them into luxurious domestic objects. The hippo bathtub is often cited as the ultimate expression of Les Lalanne’s playful luxury.
Rhinoceros = the origin myth and commercial triumph
Hippopotamus = the extravagant, bathroom-sized punchline
A pièce unique 105 x 190 x 68 cm of the Hippopotame bar was dated 76 by Lalanne. Made of copper, maillechort, stainless steel, brass and painted wood on commission for Anne Schlumberger in Houston, Texas, it was delivered to her in 1977.
It was sold for $ 31.4M from a lower estimate of $ 7M by Sotheby's on December 7, 2025, lot 8.
Asking Grok : Evolution of Lalanne's Hippopotame from Duchamp's bathtub, sold by Christie's on November 12, 2019, lot 13 M, to the bar dated 76 for sale by Sotheby's on December 10, 2025, lot 8, to the 78 1/8 bar sold by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 50A, and to the 86 4/8 bar sold by Sotheby's on November 23, 2021, lot 23.
The Evolution of François-Xavier Lalanne's Hippopotame Series: From Bathtub to Bar
François-Xavier Lalanne (1927–2008), often known simply as Lalanne and part of the collaborative duo Les Lalanne with his wife Claude, was renowned for his whimsical, functional animal sculptures that blended Surrealism with everyday utility. His Hippopotame series exemplifies this approach, transforming the semi-aquatic hippopotamus into sculptural objects that serve practical purposes while evoking humor, mythology, and the natural world. The series began in the late 1960s with the Hippopotame I bathtub—a nod to ancient Egyptian blue hippo amulets and the animal's riverine habitat—and evolved into the more social Hippopotame II bar iterations in the 1970s and 1980s. These works reimagine the hippo as a guardian of revelry, with hinged compartments hiding bottles, glasses, ice buckets, shakers, and trays, drawing on Surrealist influences like Max Ernst's mechanical beasts and Meret Oppenheim's fur-covered teacup.
The bathtub-to-bar progression reflects Lalanne's philosophy: "A bathtub and a hippopotamus make a better marriage than a bathtub and a zebra," as he once quipped, emphasizing the creature's innate affinity for immersion—whether in water or spirits. Early versions were unique commissions (e.g., a blue resin bathtub for Marcel Duchamp and his wife Teeny in 1969), while later bars were produced in limited editions of eight, cast in bronze with patinated finishes for durability and patina. The sculptures' dimensions typically span around 58–60 inches high, 78–86 inches long, and 30–36 inches deep when closed, expanding when opened for use.
The auction history you referenced traces key sales of Hippopotame I (bathtub) and Hippopotame II (bars), highlighting the works' rising market value—from under $200,000 in the early 2000s to multimillion-dollar records today.
Nov 12, 2019 Christie's, New York (La Ménagerie sale) lot 13M, Unique 'Hippopotame I' Bathtub (1969)
Unique; welded brass and copper 50½ × 114 × 33 in. (128 × 289.6 × 83.8 cm) (closed). Signed and dated 'FxL 69 FRANÇOIS-X LALANNE'. Commissioned alongside Duchamp's blue resin version; previously sold for $168,000 at Sotheby's in 2006 (25x return).
A functional bath/sink with unironic humor, evoking ancient Egyptian fertility symbols.
Dec 10, 2025 (upcoming) Sotheby's, New York (Inaugural Design sale at Breuer; from Schlumberger Collection) lot 8. Hippopotame Bar (1976). Unique; hand-wrought copper. Approx. 58 × 76 × 36 in. (147 × 193 × 91 cm) (closed)
Commissioned for collector Anne Schlumberger; only copper version (pre-bronze), with russet/red/black patina. Includes two preparatory drawings. Highlights her patronage of Les Lalanne in the 1970s; embodies "wonder, humor, and love of life."
May 11, 2023 Christie's, 20th/21st Century sale) lot 50A. 'Hippopotame II' Bar (1978) 1/8; patinated bronze, stainless steel, copper, nickel silver, brass, painted wood. 39⅜ × 78¾ × 31½ in. (100 × 200 × 80 cm) (closed)
Monogrammed 'FXL', stamped 'LALANNE', dated '78'. Earliest bronze bar edition; nods to Egyptian goddess Taweret. Part of a broader Lalanne resurgence post-2019 estate sales.
Nov 23, 2021 Sotheby's, Paris (Important Design sale) lot 23, Hippopotame II Bar (1986) 4/8 ; patinated bronze, copper, brass, stainless steel, nickel silver. Approx. 39 × 86 × 31 in. (99 × 218.4 × 78.7 cm) (closed)
Monogrammed 'FxL', stamped 'LALANNE', dated '86'. Larger iteration with intricate bar compartments; reflects Lalanne's shift to bronze editions for broader accessibility. Sold amid strong demand for functional Surrealist design.
This list illustrates the Hippopotame's market ascent: the 2019 bathtub sale ignited fervor, with bars now commanding premiums for rarity (e.g., the unique copper piece). Editions like 1/8 and 4/8 are highly sought by collectors for their interplay of art and utility, often fetching 2–3x estimates. The series' evolution—from solitary bathing to communal toasting—mirrors Lalanne's vision of art as "at the heart of life," free from sacralization. For the 2025 sale, previews begin in October at Sotheby's Paris and Hong Kong; it anchors a multi-sale series of Schlumberger's eclectic trove, blending Monet, Dalí, and Lalanne.
It was sold for $ 31.4M from a lower estimate of $ 7M by Sotheby's on December 7, 2025, lot 8.
Asking Grok : Evolution of Lalanne's Hippopotame from Duchamp's bathtub, sold by Christie's on November 12, 2019, lot 13 M, to the bar dated 76 for sale by Sotheby's on December 10, 2025, lot 8, to the 78 1/8 bar sold by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 50A, and to the 86 4/8 bar sold by Sotheby's on November 23, 2021, lot 23.
The Evolution of François-Xavier Lalanne's Hippopotame Series: From Bathtub to Bar
François-Xavier Lalanne (1927–2008), often known simply as Lalanne and part of the collaborative duo Les Lalanne with his wife Claude, was renowned for his whimsical, functional animal sculptures that blended Surrealism with everyday utility. His Hippopotame series exemplifies this approach, transforming the semi-aquatic hippopotamus into sculptural objects that serve practical purposes while evoking humor, mythology, and the natural world. The series began in the late 1960s with the Hippopotame I bathtub—a nod to ancient Egyptian blue hippo amulets and the animal's riverine habitat—and evolved into the more social Hippopotame II bar iterations in the 1970s and 1980s. These works reimagine the hippo as a guardian of revelry, with hinged compartments hiding bottles, glasses, ice buckets, shakers, and trays, drawing on Surrealist influences like Max Ernst's mechanical beasts and Meret Oppenheim's fur-covered teacup.
The bathtub-to-bar progression reflects Lalanne's philosophy: "A bathtub and a hippopotamus make a better marriage than a bathtub and a zebra," as he once quipped, emphasizing the creature's innate affinity for immersion—whether in water or spirits. Early versions were unique commissions (e.g., a blue resin bathtub for Marcel Duchamp and his wife Teeny in 1969), while later bars were produced in limited editions of eight, cast in bronze with patinated finishes for durability and patina. The sculptures' dimensions typically span around 58–60 inches high, 78–86 inches long, and 30–36 inches deep when closed, expanding when opened for use.
The auction history you referenced traces key sales of Hippopotame I (bathtub) and Hippopotame II (bars), highlighting the works' rising market value—from under $200,000 in the early 2000s to multimillion-dollar records today.
Nov 12, 2019 Christie's, New York (La Ménagerie sale) lot 13M, Unique 'Hippopotame I' Bathtub (1969)
Unique; welded brass and copper 50½ × 114 × 33 in. (128 × 289.6 × 83.8 cm) (closed). Signed and dated 'FxL 69 FRANÇOIS-X LALANNE'. Commissioned alongside Duchamp's blue resin version; previously sold for $168,000 at Sotheby's in 2006 (25x return).
A functional bath/sink with unironic humor, evoking ancient Egyptian fertility symbols.
Dec 10, 2025 (upcoming) Sotheby's, New York (Inaugural Design sale at Breuer; from Schlumberger Collection) lot 8. Hippopotame Bar (1976). Unique; hand-wrought copper. Approx. 58 × 76 × 36 in. (147 × 193 × 91 cm) (closed)
Commissioned for collector Anne Schlumberger; only copper version (pre-bronze), with russet/red/black patina. Includes two preparatory drawings. Highlights her patronage of Les Lalanne in the 1970s; embodies "wonder, humor, and love of life."
May 11, 2023 Christie's, 20th/21st Century sale) lot 50A. 'Hippopotame II' Bar (1978) 1/8; patinated bronze, stainless steel, copper, nickel silver, brass, painted wood. 39⅜ × 78¾ × 31½ in. (100 × 200 × 80 cm) (closed)
Monogrammed 'FXL', stamped 'LALANNE', dated '78'. Earliest bronze bar edition; nods to Egyptian goddess Taweret. Part of a broader Lalanne resurgence post-2019 estate sales.
Nov 23, 2021 Sotheby's, Paris (Important Design sale) lot 23, Hippopotame II Bar (1986) 4/8 ; patinated bronze, copper, brass, stainless steel, nickel silver. Approx. 39 × 86 × 31 in. (99 × 218.4 × 78.7 cm) (closed)
Monogrammed 'FxL', stamped 'LALANNE', dated '86'. Larger iteration with intricate bar compartments; reflects Lalanne's shift to bronze editions for broader accessibility. Sold amid strong demand for functional Surrealist design.
This list illustrates the Hippopotame's market ascent: the 2019 bathtub sale ignited fervor, with bars now commanding premiums for rarity (e.g., the unique copper piece). Editions like 1/8 and 4/8 are highly sought by collectors for their interplay of art and utility, often fetching 2–3x estimates. The series' evolution—from solitary bathing to communal toasting—mirrors Lalanne's vision of art as "at the heart of life," free from sacralization. For the 2025 sale, previews begin in October at Sotheby's Paris and Hong Kong; it anchors a multi-sale series of Schlumberger's eclectic trove, blending Monet, Dalí, and Lalanne.
1978 Back by Matisse (posthumous)
2010 SOLD for $ 49M by Christie's
In 1906, Matisse designs an original theme of sculpture: a nude woman standing, life size, seen from behind, leaning against a wall. The subject fascinated him to such a degree that he created three further versions, in 1913, 1916 and 1930. Psychoanalysts could probably tell us the reason of that backside position.
These four naked Backs are changing from realism to stylization, from flexibility to a balance of the masses. The last state is broad and symmetrical, the body barred from head to buttocks by a vertical braid that resembles the tail of a heavy horse.
Twelve bronzes were published from each of the four plasters between 1948 and 1981. On November 3, 2010, Christie's sold for $ 49M from a lower estimate of $ 25M a bronze of the Back IV, 189 cm high with a brown patina, cast in 1978.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
These four naked Backs are changing from realism to stylization, from flexibility to a balance of the masses. The last state is broad and symmetrical, the body barred from head to buttocks by a vertical braid that resembles the tail of a heavy horse.
Twelve bronzes were published from each of the four plasters between 1948 and 1981. On November 3, 2010, Christie's sold for $ 49M from a lower estimate of $ 25M a bronze of the Back IV, 189 cm high with a brown patina, cast in 1978.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
- This 2010 tweet by@ArtHitParade announced the $48.8 million sale of Henri Matisse's "Nu de dos, 4 état (Back IV)" at Christie's, a life-size bronze relief that shattered the artist's prior auction record.
- The sculpture, the fourth and most abstracted in Matisse's decades-long Back series started in 1909, features a simplified female nude emphasizing geometric harmony and was cast in 1978 from a 1930 plaster.
- Exceeding its $25-35 million estimate amid a bidding war, the sale to Gagosian Gallery highlighted surging demand for Matisse's sculptures, a record unbroken until a 2018 painting sale.
Spider by BOURGEOIS
Intro
Louise Bourgeois desired to interpret her relationship with her own parents, generating a suffering that she appeased by her art at the borderline of sexual provocation. From 1951 to 1980 she tries a psychoanalysis. It is a failure : she considers that Freud does not propose anything for the artists.
She left many writings about her own art but it remains difficult to find the key. The relationship between sex and family, the position of the child within the family cell, are the highly traumatic guides to her creativity. Until 98 years old, she will be an activist in support to all the sexual minorities.
Within her old age, Louise Bourgeois remained hypersensitive to sexual ambiguity and sexual promiscuity. On October 15, 2015, Sotheby's sold for £ 1.2M a showcase realized in 2001 titled Mother and child, exhibiting a limp infant on the nude torso of a woman like some externalization of pregnancy. The carefully carved body of Bourgeois's spiders is a further female carnal symbol.
The world of a real spider is certainly of high complexity. It (she) is patient, steady in the center of her web which she builds and efficiently repairs after a destruction. The polygon of her eight legs offers a shelter for her loved ones, but she is also a fierce predator to the insects. Her small size makes her vulnerable but the artist will enlarge it to make her the towering star of a dehumanized parallel universe.
The spider is not a vertebrate and her behavioral psychology is inaccessible. The spider does not look like us, yet we share the planet with it. Good worker, it tirelessly endeavors to create and repair its web. It disturbs us and has no face, and we interpret it as a threat. This is unfair : the spider protects our health by catching and eating the mosquitoes.
By choosing this beast as a symbol of motherhood, Louise Bourgeois is not an artist of animals but indeed a highly disturbing surrealist artist in the line of Wifredo Lam.
The spider symbolizes her own beloved nurturing mother who had died six decades earlier. The high legs provide a shelter. Their slimness is a technical achievement, like the thread of the spider which is of extreme strength considering its size. Some of them have a dressed body, also recalling the memory of the mother whose job was to repair tapestries. Louise's mother was indeed a weaver, like a spider.
In 1994 she builds a small steel spider 28 cm high which carries marble eggs in a bag under its body. This sculpture, one of the first by Bourgeois on this theme, passed at Sotheby's on November 11, 2015.
In 1995, at the age of 84, she suddenly understands that the spider's maternal function will solve her fantasies. She sculpts new steel spiders and edits them in bronze, in various configurations : lowered body for climbing on the wall or raised on its tall thin legs.
The perimeter of the legs is the safety zone offered by the mother to her offspring. The comparison with the Lupa Capitolina suckling Romulus and Remus is relevant. The spiders of Louise Bourgeois personify her own mother, too frail but intensely protective.
The gigantic dimension of the sculptures, culminating in 1999 with a 10 m high Maman, solves this contradiction. Maman carries her eggs as in the original spider five years earlier.
She left many writings about her own art but it remains difficult to find the key. The relationship between sex and family, the position of the child within the family cell, are the highly traumatic guides to her creativity. Until 98 years old, she will be an activist in support to all the sexual minorities.
Within her old age, Louise Bourgeois remained hypersensitive to sexual ambiguity and sexual promiscuity. On October 15, 2015, Sotheby's sold for £ 1.2M a showcase realized in 2001 titled Mother and child, exhibiting a limp infant on the nude torso of a woman like some externalization of pregnancy. The carefully carved body of Bourgeois's spiders is a further female carnal symbol.
The world of a real spider is certainly of high complexity. It (she) is patient, steady in the center of her web which she builds and efficiently repairs after a destruction. The polygon of her eight legs offers a shelter for her loved ones, but she is also a fierce predator to the insects. Her small size makes her vulnerable but the artist will enlarge it to make her the towering star of a dehumanized parallel universe.
The spider is not a vertebrate and her behavioral psychology is inaccessible. The spider does not look like us, yet we share the planet with it. Good worker, it tirelessly endeavors to create and repair its web. It disturbs us and has no face, and we interpret it as a threat. This is unfair : the spider protects our health by catching and eating the mosquitoes.
By choosing this beast as a symbol of motherhood, Louise Bourgeois is not an artist of animals but indeed a highly disturbing surrealist artist in the line of Wifredo Lam.
The spider symbolizes her own beloved nurturing mother who had died six decades earlier. The high legs provide a shelter. Their slimness is a technical achievement, like the thread of the spider which is of extreme strength considering its size. Some of them have a dressed body, also recalling the memory of the mother whose job was to repair tapestries. Louise's mother was indeed a weaver, like a spider.
In 1994 she builds a small steel spider 28 cm high which carries marble eggs in a bag under its body. This sculpture, one of the first by Bourgeois on this theme, passed at Sotheby's on November 11, 2015.
In 1995, at the age of 84, she suddenly understands that the spider's maternal function will solve her fantasies. She sculpts new steel spiders and edits them in bronze, in various configurations : lowered body for climbing on the wall or raised on its tall thin legs.
The perimeter of the legs is the safety zone offered by the mother to her offspring. The comparison with the Lupa Capitolina suckling Romulus and Remus is relevant. The spiders of Louise Bourgeois personify her own mother, too frail but intensely protective.
The gigantic dimension of the sculptures, culminating in 1999 with a 10 m high Maman, solves this contradiction. Maman carries her eggs as in the original spider five years earlier.
Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010), a French-American artist renowned for her sculptures and installations, produced work deeply intertwined with psychoanalytic themes. She viewed art as a form of self-analysis and catharsis, often describing it as her "guarantee of sanity" and a direct access to the unconscious.
Childhood Trauma and Family Dynamics
Bourgeois's childhood profoundly shaped her psychological landscape and art. Her father, a domineering and philandering figure, had a long-term affair with the family's live-in English governess, Sadie, which Bourgeois discovered as a child. This betrayal, compounded by her mother's complicity (or tolerance) and her mother's death from illness in 1932, instilled lasting feelings of abandonment, rage, jealousy, and guilt. These experiences fueled Oedipal conflicts, fears of betrayal, and ambivalent attachments—central to Freudian theory.
Following her father's death in 1951, Bourgeois entered psychoanalysis, initially with Dr. Leonard Cammer and then for over 30 years with Dr. Henry Lowenfeld, a Freudian analyst. She attended sessions up to four times a week during intense periods, grappling with depression, anxiety, insomnia, agoraphobia, and aggressive impulses. Though she engaged deeply with Freudian concepts, Bourgeois remained ambivalent: she criticized Freud's methods as unhelpful for artists' torment, arguing that art provided repetition and exorcism where analysis fell short. She preferred alternatives like Jung and Klein, yet her work echoes Freudian ideas of repression, the primal scene, and symbol formation.
Fillette (1968), a latex phallus often photographed with Bourgeois holding it playfully, explores sexuality, gender ambiguity, and paternal authority.
Key Artworks and Psychoanalytic Interpretations
Her art served as sublimation—transforming pain into symbolic forms—revisiting traumas without resolution.
Legacy
Bourgeois's art embodies lifelong psychic excavation: trauma as creative fuel, repetition as compulsion, and creation as survival. Her feminist reclamation of psychoanalysis challenged its misogyny while using it to explore female experience—motherhood, anger, sexuality. As she wrote, art allowed acting out what analysis could not cure. Her work invites viewers into universal emotions: fear, loss, and the uncanny return of the repressed.
Childhood Trauma and Family Dynamics
Bourgeois's childhood profoundly shaped her psychological landscape and art. Her father, a domineering and philandering figure, had a long-term affair with the family's live-in English governess, Sadie, which Bourgeois discovered as a child. This betrayal, compounded by her mother's complicity (or tolerance) and her mother's death from illness in 1932, instilled lasting feelings of abandonment, rage, jealousy, and guilt. These experiences fueled Oedipal conflicts, fears of betrayal, and ambivalent attachments—central to Freudian theory.
Following her father's death in 1951, Bourgeois entered psychoanalysis, initially with Dr. Leonard Cammer and then for over 30 years with Dr. Henry Lowenfeld, a Freudian analyst. She attended sessions up to four times a week during intense periods, grappling with depression, anxiety, insomnia, agoraphobia, and aggressive impulses. Though she engaged deeply with Freudian concepts, Bourgeois remained ambivalent: she criticized Freud's methods as unhelpful for artists' torment, arguing that art provided repetition and exorcism where analysis fell short. She preferred alternatives like Jung and Klein, yet her work echoes Freudian ideas of repression, the primal scene, and symbol formation.
Fillette (1968), a latex phallus often photographed with Bourgeois holding it playfully, explores sexuality, gender ambiguity, and paternal authority.
Key Artworks and Psychoanalytic Interpretations
Her art served as sublimation—transforming pain into symbolic forms—revisiting traumas without resolution.
- Spiders (e.g., Maman, 1999): Monumental bronze spiders symbolize her mother: protective, weaving (like tapestry restoration), yet threatening. They represent maternal ambivalence—nurturing yet overwhelming—and reparation for family tensions.
- Cells series (1989–2000s): Enclosed installations like theatrical chambers, containing personal objects, furniture, and sculptures. They evoke isolation, memory, the primal scene, and psychological pain—physical, emotional, and intellectual. Viewers peer into "houses of the mind," confronting entrapment and voyeurism.
- The Destruction of the Father (1974): A grotesque tableau of dismembered forms on a table/bed, enacting patricidal fantasy—devouring the tyrannical father in revenge.
- Arch of Hysteria (1993): A polished bronze figure in ecstatic contortion, referencing Charcot's hysterical patients but gendered male, universalizing vulnerability.
Legacy
Bourgeois's art embodies lifelong psychic excavation: trauma as creative fuel, repetition as compulsion, and creation as survival. Her feminist reclamation of psychoanalysis challenged its misogyny while using it to explore female experience—motherhood, anger, sexuality. As she wrote, art allowed acting out what analysis could not cure. Her work invites viewers into universal emotions: fear, loss, and the uncanny return of the repressed.
1
1996
2023 SOLD for $ 33M by Sotheby's
Largest Bourgeois's spiders have a remarkable feature : this figurative sculpture can be viewed from inside by a tall standing person. He or she admires its graceful arches. An abstract precedent was with Calder's monumental stabiles.
A Spider 340 x 670 x 630 cm was cast in bronze in six copies. Its artist's proof is in steel. One of the eight leg's ends is curved as to catch a prey.
The number 1/6 was cast in January 1996. and immediately exhibited in a San Francisco gallery. It was sold for $ 33M by Sotheby's on May 18, 2023, lot 105. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Apr 24, 2023
With chilling grandeur, Louise Bourgeois’ 1996 ‘Spider’—coming to auction for the first time in May at #SothbysNewYork—represents her singular contribution to the history of Modern art. Discover more: https://bit.ly/3L1Xp5m
A Spider 340 x 670 x 630 cm was cast in bronze in six copies. Its artist's proof is in steel. One of the eight leg's ends is curved as to catch a prey.
The number 1/6 was cast in January 1996. and immediately exhibited in a San Francisco gallery. It was sold for $ 33M by Sotheby's on May 18, 2023, lot 105. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Apr 24, 2023
With chilling grandeur, Louise Bourgeois’ 1996 ‘Spider’—coming to auction for the first time in May at #SothbysNewYork—represents her singular contribution to the history of Modern art. Discover more: https://bit.ly/3L1Xp5m
- Sotheby's post promotes Louise Bourgeois' monumental 1996 bronze 'Spider' sculpture—symbolizing maternal protection and her mother's weaving legacy—for its first auction appearance, acquired that year by Fundação Itaú in São Paulo.
- The 10-foot-tall edition 1/6 sold for a record $32.8 million on May 18, 2023, at Sotheby's New York, surpassing estimates and boosting the contemporary sale to $167.5 million total.
- The video features abstract, shadowy spider imagery transitioning into "MOTHER, of all" text overlays, poetically capturing Bourgeois' exploration of resilience and familial bonds in modern art.
2
1997 2/6
2019 SOLD for $ 32M by Christie's
A spider 3.26 m high on a 7.56 x 7.06 m overall perimeter designed in 1996 was sculpted in steel and cast in bronze in 1997 in six copies plus one artist's proof and one variant in bronze.
The 2/6 was sold for $ 32M from a lower is estimated $ 25M by Christie's on May 15, 2019, lot 21 B.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 16, 2019
Louise Bourgeois's 'Spider' realizes $32,055,000 at auction, setting a new #WorldAuctionRecord for the artist https://bit.ly/2JGa8MR
The 2/6 was sold for $ 32M from a lower is estimated $ 25M by Christie's on May 15, 2019, lot 21 B.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 16, 2019
Louise Bourgeois's 'Spider' realizes $32,055,000 at auction, setting a new #WorldAuctionRecord for the artist https://bit.ly/2JGa8MR
- Christie's 2019 post celebrates the $32 million sale of Louise Bourgeois's bronze sculpture "Spider" (1997), a 10-foot-tall work from her iconic arachnid series symbolizing maternal protection and psychological tension, which set an auction record for the artist at the time.
- The sculpture, one of several casts from an edition, features elongated bronze legs and a clustered body evoking vulnerability, drawing from Bourgeois's personal history as explored in her confessional feminist art.
- This record was surpassed in 2023 when another "Spider" cast sold for $32.8 million at Sotheby's, highlighting the enduring market demand for Bourgeois's late-career sculptures amid rising values for women artists.
3
1997 3/6
2015 SOLD for $ 28M by Christie's
On November 10, 2015, Christie's, sold for $ 28M the bronze 3/6 of the large variant 7.56 x 7.06 x 3.26 m, executed in 1997, lot 10B.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
Grok thought :
Quote Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 11, 2015
Louise Bourgeois' Spider just sold for $28,165,000, a #WorldAuctionRecord for the artist.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
Grok thought :
Quote Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 11, 2015
Louise Bourgeois' Spider just sold for $28,165,000, a #WorldAuctionRecord for the artist.
- Christie's announced the sale of Louise Bourgeois' monumental bronze sculpture "Spider" for $28.2 million at its 2015 Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sale, shattering the artist's prior auction record of $10.7 million by over 160%.
- The 1996 cast, one of eight editions, towers nearly 30 feet high and symbolizes maternal protection in Bourgeois' oeuvre, drawing from her Freudian explorations of family trauma and femininity.
- Despite exceeding estimates of $25-35 million, the overall auction totaled $266 million—below the $316 million pre-sale projection—highlighting a softer market for postwar art that evening.
