692. Charles Cordier (1827-1905), French,

Negro from the Sudan, 1856-1857.

Bronze, onyx and Vosges porphyry,

96 x 66 x 36 cm. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

 

 

Charles Henri Joseph Cordier

(1827 Cambrai – 1905 Algeria)

 

The French sculptor Charles Cordier was a student of Fauginet and Rude. His work was first displayed at the 1844 Salon. His goal was to study the different races of mankind. Having visited North Africa a number of times, as well as Greece and Italy, he returned armed with material that allowed him to found his anthropological and ethnographic gallery. His works, more remarkable for their force than for their grace, exhibit both a genuine scientific understanding and a true originality. He excelled at producing the various racial types in their intimate character, giving them a palpable life force. Many of his busts, in particular his Capresse des Colonies and his Negro of the Sudan are pieces in which he succeeded in reviving the art of polychrome sculpture.