75 - Charles Henri Joseph Cordier (1827–1905)

Charles Henri Joseph Cordier (1827–1905) Saïd Abdallah, of the Mayac tribe, Kingdom of Darfur Model created in 1848 Red-brown bronze bust Signed “C. CORDIER” on the back H. 49 cm Throughout his life, Charles Cordier was interested in the study of human diversity. While maintaining the scientific approach to ethnographic study, he sought to show the public, in the wake of the abolition of slavery, “the ubiquity of beauty.” Throughout his travels, Cordier, as a humanist, boldly challenged the conventional wisdom of that conformist turn-of-the-century era to reveal the beautiful uniqueness of peoples around the world. Drawing on these “morphotype” studies he brought back from his travels, Charles Cordier went on to create a collection of sculptures combining polychrome marble, onyx, enamel, bronze, and silver—works of great innovation and opulence. Related literature: -Ethnographic Sculpture: From the Hottentot Venus to Gauguin’s Tehura, exhibition catalog, Paris, Musée d’Orsay, March 16–June 12, 1994, Paris, RMN, 1994; another example listed under Cat. No. 32, p. 52, pp. 51–64; -Christine Barthe, Laure de Margerie, Charles Cordier (1827–1905): The Other and the Elsewhere, Paris, Ed. de la Martinière, 2004, models listed under nos. 469–515, pp. 203–209.