Charles Cordier

signed and dated: ALGER / 1856 / CH. CORDIER

Sale of Cordier's studio, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, January 21, 1865, lot 48
Re-purchased by Cordier for 1,100 francs
Private collection, Belgium

London, South Kensington, International Exhibition, 1862 (exhibited on the stand of the founder Lerolle)

Louis Énault, in Constitutionnel, 3 December 1862
J.  B. Waring, Masterpieces of Industrial Art and Sculptures at the International Exhibition 1862, London, vol. II, 1863, pl. 145, illustrated
Jeanine Durand Révillon, 'Un promoteur de la sculpture polychrome sous le Second Empire, Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier (1827-1905)' in Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire de l'art français, session of 6th February 1982, 1984, pp. 181-98, p. 193, no. 26
Laure de Margerie & Edouard Papet, Facing the Other: Charles Cordier (1827-1905) Ethnographic Sculptor, (exh. cat.), Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 2004, cat. no. 386

Overall the condition of the bronze is excellent. There is minor dirt and wear to the surface consistent with age, including a few minor abrasions where the earrings have rubbed against the cheeks at the jawline. The earrings are replaced. The bronze has been professionally cleaned and waxed. The bronze has been cast in three sections and one original joint is slightly visible below the diadem.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This important rediscovered bust of Cordier's Mauresque Noire was listed in the 2004 catalogue raisonné of Cordier's works by de Margerie and Papet as location unknown. De Margerie and Papet list three bronze versions of the 1856 Mauresque noire. Cat. no. 384 is in the collection of the Musée de l'Homme in Paris. The other two versions are listed as location unknown. The present can be identified as cat. no. 386. An early tinted sepia photograph, illustrated in the 2004 catalogue, shows the unique and complex coloured patinations. In particular the bright silvered blouse and the unusual green patination to the jacket, as well as to the green stripes of the scarf swathed around the socle are distinctive. This colouration is not seen in other versions of the model.

The present bronze was sold by Cordier in 1865, when to fund repairs to the roof of his house and his first trip to Egypt, he offered fifty six pieces from his studio at the Hôtel Drouot. Curiously the artist consequently bought back this piece in a move which emphasises the importance of the model and the quality of this particular cast.

On 5 April 1856 Cordier was granted a fund of 1000 francs by the musée d'histoire naturelle to visit Algeria with an official brief to 'study the various types of indigenous peoples from the standpoint of art.' The sculptor took up his sojourn with enthusiasm and was determined to experience the culture as closely as possible. He insisted on living amongst Algerians rather than fellow French ex-patriates and appears to have been accepted within the community. As he wrote: 'I lived in a native quarter of the Casbah, I got on well with everyone, and as my door was always open, pretty soon I entertained quite a number of visitors.' It was here that he captured the likeness of his Mauresque noire.

The women of Algeria held an immense fascination for many French nineteenth-century artists, not least because their lives were so inaccessible to men, and particularly to foreigners. Cordier himself wrote how he overcame this difficulty:

'Never does a man have the right to be in the garden at the same time as a woman, and I, a roumi, still less than the others; however, I was able to exchange signs with my feminine neighbours through the narrow window of my side door... and quickly I could ... receive a few of them to pose them. It was there that I created the Singing Moorish Woman [and] the Black Moorish Woman...'

Mauresque noire was exhibited at the Algerian Exhibition at the Palais de l'Industrie in 1860 alongside other portraits created during Cordier's Algerian sojourn. A descriptive catalogue of the exhibition was written by the critic Marc Trapadoux. Trapadoux was bewitched by the Mauresque noire and wrote passionately of her mysterious allure:

'Her unique beauty is the product of a wonderful mixture of Moorish and Negro blood... The perfect regularity of her features is reminiscent of the beauties which one can meet in one of the provinces of the Midi... On her intelligent forehead one can read the profound calculation of her despotic passions. Her magnetic eyes irresistibly attract the object of her desires and kiss with a broad view all the countries of her dreams.'

RELATED LITERATURE
Marc Trapadoux, Catalogue descriptif de l'oeuvre de M. Cordier, Paris, 1860
Andreas Blühm et al., The Colour of Sculpture 1840-1910, (exh. cat.), Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, 1996, pp. 170-4, cat. nos. 47-8
Laure de Margerie & Edouard Papet, Facing the Other: Charles Cordier (1827-1905) Ethnographic Sculptor, (exh. cat.), Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 2004, pp. 13-30, 51-80, 131-2 & 191-2, cat. nos. 384-6
Roberta Panzanelli, Eike Schmidt & Kenneth Lapatin, The Colour of Life, (exh. cat.), The J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Villa, Malibu, 2008, pp. 160-3, cat. nos, 31-2