Phillips wishes to thank Mrs Claude Lalanne for her assistance with the cataloguing of the present lot.

Lalanne was inspired by naturalistic animal forms and his first flock of sheep titled Pour Polyphème, were submitted to the Salon de la Jeune Peinture in 1966. In reference to his exhibit Lalanne commented: 'If you come with a snail as big as a thumb, nobody notices; you have to go with something immodest and slightly embarrassing' (Daniel Marchesseau, Les Lalannes, exh. cat., Les Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 2010, p. 36). Pour Polyphème was destined to constitute a precedent for the rest of the artist prolific career. From this moment onwards his work evoked the spirit of the Surrealist philosophy and became recognisable for its iconic absurdity. François-Xavier Lalanne wrote: 'If there exists a planet where plants moved on feet, you might see grass run off at the approach of a cow. Unless on that particular planet, animals where rooted to the spot the way oysters are stuck to their rock. Suddenly the immobile would seize the mobile, turning plants into meat-eaters. Thus animal would be vegetable. Ultimately we just might be living on some other planet' (Daniel Abadie, Lalanne(s), Paris, 2008, p. 326).