Two new busts by Charles Cordier for Orsay

25/4/24 - Acquisition - Paris, Musée d’Orsay - Two new busts by Charles Cordier have been added to the fine collection of works by this pioneer of polychrome sculpture under the Second Empire already held by the Musée d’Orsay, which initiated its late rediscovery in 2004 (see article). These two early Chinese busts, signed and dated 1853 and exhibited at the 1855 Universal Exhibition in Paris, occupy a special place in the sculptor’s output, as they represent his first attempt at polychromy. They were acquired from a private English collection through Christie’s in Paris. They had remained in private hands since their last appearance on the Paris art market in 1890, and were recently rediscovered in the kennels of a house, as the online notice for the works states.

1. Charles Cordier (1848-1909)
Chinese Woman, 1853
Bronze, gilded bronze with enamels - 91.5 x 52.5 cm
Paris, Musée d’Orsay
Photo: Musée d’Orsay-RMN-GP/Sophie Crépy

See the image in its page

2. Charles Cordier (1848-1909)
Chinese, 1853
Bronze, gilded bronze with enamels - 97.5 x 52.5 cm
Paris, Musée d’Orsay
Photo: Musée d’Orsay-RMN-GP/Sophie Crépy

See the image in its page

Chinese with long braids holding an opium pipe and Chinese with a high bun holding a closed fan, the models for these two busts designed as pendants are well known. They were commissioned from Cordier by the State in September 1852 for the newly-created anthropology gallery at the Paris Natural History Museum, and were executed in polychrome bronze in 1853. They are now kept by the Musée de l’Homme, as part of the famous series of busts by the sculptor known as ‘ethnographic’ busts. They were so successful that they were produced in various sizes and materials, including monochrome bronze, gilded and silvered polychrome bronze and hard porcelain. The versions now in the Musée d’Orsay combine the techniques - rarely used in sculpture - of galvanoplasty - just invented for Christofle in 1842…