Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier French, 1827-1905

Cercle des Phocéens, Marseille, 1862;
Private collection, Marseille, 1975

Capresse: Marseilles, La Société artistique des Bouches-du-Rhône, 1862, nos.356
La Juive d'Alger: possibly the International Exhibition, London, 1862 (described simply as Juive d'Alger, bust); probably Salon, Paris, 1863, no.2308 (see below)

Cercle des Phocéens, 1934, pp.30-31 ;
L. de Margerie et al, Facing the Other: Charles Cordier (1827-1905) Ethnographic Sculptor, exhib. cat. Paris, Musée d’Orsay, 2004, p.222, nos. 613 and 614.

Le beau n’est pas propre à une race privilégiée; j’ai émis dans le monde artistique l’idée de l’ubiquité du beau (Charles Cordier, Bulletins de la Société d’Anthropologie de Paris, 1862)

These two busts represent the very highest standard of quality and craftsmanship achieved by Cordier and this is the first time that they have been shown in public since the sculptor himself exhibited them in Marseille 142 years ago. They are undoubtedly the most important works by Cordier to come to the market in more than six years and are a unique pairing. The Juive d'Alger is normally associated  with the Cheik Arabe and the Capresse des Colonies with the Nègre du Soudan. This specific selection is explained by the preference of the men’s gambling club, the Cercle des Phocéens, which purchased them from the sculptor. The Cercle also commissioned the original columns which are attributed to designs by Charles-François Rossigneux.

It is only over the past 12 months that the importance of Cordier’s contribution to the history of sculpture during the 19^th century in France has been fully examined and presented internationally, thanks to the touring monographic exhibition organised by Mme Laure de Margerie and M. Edouart Papet of the Musée d’Orsay.  Previously, Cordier’s sculptural originality in his approach to colour and personal conviction in the value of his ethnographical subject matter was known to a smaller world of collectors and specialists through the pioneering study made by Mme Jeanine Durand-Révillon 20 years ago.  The recent exhibition has finally allowed a wider audience to appreciate the depth of Cordier’s art; an art encompassing his society portraiture, lavish interior decoration, occasional monumental projects and even rare religious work such as the large group of the Virgin and Child intended to crown the façade of the cathedral in Monaco.

Cordier’s use of colour, both different coloured marbles and extensive silvering and enamelling, created considerable and continued controversy during his life time, yet he could claim valid historical precedent in both antiquity and the work of the late 16^th century sculptor Nicolas Cordier.  The wide ranging exhibition held at the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam in 1996, The Colour of Sculpture 1840-1910, is the best account of the broader debate about the use of colour in 19^th century sculpture. It explored, in addition to classical examples, the manifestation of colour in Gothic and Renaissance revivals, Salon sculpture, Impressionism and fin-de-siècle sculptors. However, the cover illustration for this ground-breaking exhibition was of the example of La Juive d’Alger owned by the Van Gogh Museum.  Cordier remains the artist most often cited in this lively aesthetic debate.

In a century that is too often characterised as one of superficial revivals of past styles, Cordier stands out, alongside Barye, Carpeaux, Dalou, Préault and Rodin, as a French sculptor with truly innovative, original and influential ideas.  Whilst a lively academic polemic raged on the nature of colour in Antique sculpture, Cordier, who was no theoretician, based his pursuit of colour around three practical considerations. Two of these were technical advances which gave him the materials with which he worked. In 1842 ancient quarries of onyx-marble deposits were reopened in Algeria and from 1856 these provided Cordier with a completely new material.  In the same year the Algerian quarries were discovered, the Maison Christofle patented a process of silver-plating and gilding metal. This technique, when combined with the beautifully coloured onyx, enabled Cordier to handle colour with a truth to the inherent beauty of the material, in contrast to creating a deceptive artificial colouration using applied colour. In this respect, what distinguishes Cordier’s art is its sheer technical accomplishment. Each sculpture is made in several pieces which fit together seamlessly and his specific choice of materials gives meaning to his subject matter. Cordier’s unique exploration of ethnographic subjects is the third consideration which informs his handling of colour.  The use of colour, and specifically the colours inherent in non-european material such as Algerian onyx-marble, is integral to his aims in creating an engaging and true image of indigenous peoples.

La Capresse des Colonies, also known as La Négresse des Colonies was first exhibited at the Salon in 1861, where it was purchased by the ministry of the Maison de l’Empereur for Fr. 3,500.  According to Durand-Revillon, the African woman who posed as a model for Carpeaux’s Quatre parties du Monde fountain, was also the model for Cordier’s Capresse bust.  Théophile Gautier's assessment of the bust was that ‘l’ethnographie et l’artiste sont également satisfaite’ and praised ‘l’absolue soumission au type et l’exécution parfaite au point de vue de la statuaire’. De Margerie records only 5 other versions of the Capresse with onyx-marble shoulders, four of which are presently listed as location unknown.

The 1934 publication on the Cercle des Phocéens gives a useful account of the busts' acquisition. From this we know the Capresse was the first to be bought in 1862 for Fr 2,000. The Juive was bought subsequently and the pedestals purchased shortly after to unite the two busts. This sequence of events may explain the unusual white marble socles which are different from another example of the pedestal shown in a photograph of Cordier’s stand at the 1867 Exposition Universelle (De Margerie, op.cit., p.81). The Cercle continued to corespond with Cordier about work on the busts until 1876.

La Juive d’Alger was made following Cordier’s second trip to Algeria. First shown at the 1862 International Exhibition in London, it was exhibited in the Paris Salon in the following year.  The present Juive is the earliest known dated example (1862) of the seven other versions of this model made with onyx-marble.  As we know that our version of the Juive was bought soon after 1862, it is probable that it is the prime version. De Margerie, however, identifies the original London and Salon version with an untraced example that is visible in a photograph of the 1867 Exposition Universelle, but it is perhaps more likely that the sculptor made a further version within the intervening four years.  One of these other versions was commissioned by the State in 1872 for Fr 3,500 and is now in the Musée de Troyes.

Despite the scientific study of ethnography and the technical aspects of his handling of colour, Cordier’s sculpture is far from academic. His most lavish busts, such as this Juive d’Alger and Capresse des Colonies, were acquired by the highest echelons of society, including Napoleon III, Empress Eugénie, Baron James de Rothschild and Queen Victoria. Whilst the artistic establishment ventilated disagreement with Cordier’s colouristic creations, his wealthy patrons ignored these bickerings and purchased his ethnographic busts and figures for their sheer beauty and opulence.  Cordier's unique sculptural style was admired by patrons whose tastes were unswayed by the critics, from the corridors of the Queen Victoria's beloved Osbourne House to the gambling room of the Cercle des Phocéens in Marseille.

RELATED LITERATURE
J. Durand-Revillon, 'Un promoteur de la sculpture polychrome sous la Second Empire. Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier (1827-1905), Soc. His. Art Français, 1982, .195, nos. 79 & 82; Lami, vol.1, p.420