242 - Charles CORDIER (1827–1905)

Charles CORDIER (1827–1905) Saïd Abdallah of the Mayac tribe, Kingdom of Darfur Bronze cast with triple patina, predominantly silver Signed H. 38 cm (with pedestal and without base) H. 50 cm (total) Marble base likely added later; wear on the patina Note: Created in plaster in 1848 and then cast in bronze by the government in 1851, the bust of Saïd Abdallah, of the Mayac tribe, Kingdom of Darfur, marks the dazzling beginning of Charles Cordier’s (1827–1905) career. Then a young artist trained under François Rude, Cordier broke with the exotic caricatures and servile imagery of his time when he met this former freed Sudanese slave in Paris, whose noble features he immortalized. Presented at the Salon the very year slavery was definitively abolished in France, the work draws on the formal conventions and dignity of the classical European heroic portrait, featuring a haughty bearing, carefully draped clothing, and a penetrating gaze. This bold move laid the groundwork for Cordier’s lifelong project: ethnographic sculpture, which would lead to his appointment at the National Museum of Natural History and take him on journeys through Algeria, Greece, and Egypt to revitalize the use of polychromy (bronze, marble, and onyx). Guided by his conviction that “beauty is not the exclusive domain of a privileged race,” Cordier made this sculpture—now housed at the Musée d’Orsay alongside its counterpart, the African Venus—a humanist manifesto celebrating the universality of human beauty within the realm of the fine arts.