Poetry or a Young Woman of Paros Bust unpainted
(FRENCH, 1827-1905)
Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier
From a private collection Sold at Christies Auction site for $350,000 in 2019
Unfinished
Made from Resin
5cm tall
 
If you would like to know more about the artist and his work here is an extract taken from the Christies website:
"Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier (1827-1905) was one of the greatest French sculptors of the 19th century, sponsored by the French state and feted by illustrious patrons including Queen Victoria, Napoléon III and Empress Eugénie, Baron James de Rothschild, and the Marquess of Hertford. A pupil of François Rude, Cordier was ethnographic sculptor to the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle in Paris and established an international reputation for truthful and arresting portrayals of diverse ethnicities. Informed by the industrial and colonial age in which he lived, Cordier responded to this new mobility of humanity. He saw and sought out familiar strangers and studied early photographic portraits of African, Chinese and Arab visitors to Paris. Not satisfied with viewing from afar, he travelled to Algeria, Italy, Egypt and Greece, returning with sketches which he worked up into vibrant portraits and idealized statues rendered in precious marbles coupled with newly invented techniques of metal casting. Like 19th century anthropology, once criticized for attempting to divide the human species into typological categories, Cordier’s art has been reassessed as a celebration of humanity and praised for portraying, in an increasingly homogeneous world, peoples who were in the process of disappearing.LA POÉSIE AND IDEAL BEAUTYFollowing the success of his 1856 trip to Algeria, Cordier petitioned the Minister of Fine Arts, Frédéric de Mercey, to sponsor his expedition to Greece. He left for an eight-month voyage on 16 April 1858 aided with a letter of introduction from Count Walewshi, Minster of Foreign Affairs, with the objective to ‘execute reproductions of the human types of that country and to inspect the quarries of statuary marble’ (E. Papet & M. Vigli ‘The Trip to Greece, April to November 1858’; Margerie, op. cit., p. 5.). The love of Greek culture was rooted in the artistic intelligentsia of Paris, and Cordier was drawn to Greece by both its exoticism and the allure of the ancient world.Cordier spent two months on the Greek island of Paros, ‘amidst these dry stones, sparing no fatigue by tropical sun’, investigating the quarries to secure for France a monopoly on the most beautiful marbles in the world. He shipped back a huge quantity of Parian marble to use for his ethnographic portraits of Greeks, especially for portraits of the peoples of Paros, and eventually realizing at least twenty-seven busts, medallions and full scale figures representing Greek figures.The sculptor's bust of Poésie, first recorded in 1859, is modelled from a young woman of Paros and therefore also known by the title Jeune femme Pariote and (Margerie, op. cit., cat. 318 & 319, p. 181). In 1860 Cordier exhibited two busts in Paris, the first titled Jeune femme Pariote, described as wearing a Venetian costume carved like flamboyant silk raised with gold embroidery, and the second Jeune femme de Paros, a simple mountain girl, her race of natural elegance and the equal of the most cultivated of aristocratic beauties (M. Trapadoux, L’Oeuvre de M. Cordier, galerie anthropologique et ethnographique pour servir à l’histoire des races, Paris, 1860, No. 39 & 41, p. 181).The present bust of Poésie, exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1875, glorifies the humble young woman of Paros with a crown of laurels, strengthening the allusion to the Muses of Greek mythology. In accentuating the analogy, Cordier makes the viewer idealize the subject by illustrating the lineage between the simple mountain girl and the mythological goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. The innate nobility of the subject is emphasized by Cordier’s characteristic coupling of vibrant materials: the flawless white marble of the face and décolletage is enhanced by the gleaming onyx shoulders wrapped in a rose marble robe. The use of such luxurious vibrant colors is exactly what made Cordier’s sculpture so commercially successful, but led to criticism that it was overtly decorative: a rebellious rebuttal of the neoclassical tradition of pure white statuary. Cordier is however considered very much a fine rather than a purely decorative artist. His work is legitimized in part by the patronage of the French state, and although he can be criticized like most Salon artists of the day for a tendency towards the romantic, he is valued because, however diverse his subjects, his portrayals always maintain an appealingly and relatable, human quality."
 
Made from resin
 
Sold individually
 
Dimensions
Height   cm 
 
NOTES
Resin Items
All resin items come unfinished (unless stated otherwise) and will require a small amount of "cleaning" - this will involve removing any printing support nodules using a sharp knife and or snips and also sanding sections to a smooth finish. This is very easy to do and takes minutes.
Always prime the resin item after any assembly. The primer will help to stick the paint to the surface. Once primed you can proceed with any paint finish you prefer from gilding to aged paint finishing. 
 
Pewter Items
As with all my  designs the pieces will require a little cleaning using a file and/or sandpaper. The metal is very soft so this is a simple and satifying part of the build process. 
I tend to use superglue (Hafixx being my favoured choice) with a super glue activator to speed things up. 
 
To paint the item I strongly recommend a metal primer. Spray primers are the easiest and just a light coat with give the paint something to 'key' with......then the choice is yours. I use all types of paints from acrylics to cellulose spray paints. All have their own merits and so I choose according to the finish I wish to create. 
After applying my coats of paint I will always add an aging layer of raw umber acrylic (water it down and then paint and wipe off to leave the dark paint in the recesses). Aging can be very rewarding and there are many options for this. One little recommendation is to use rotten stone/pumice stone powder to add what I like to describe as "dust" to the piece. It is a powder and will always be a powder unless mixed with a binder such as glue. The powder is a soft grey and if it is brished on then off it will leave a slight dusting in the recesses of the design. 
A final flourish of splatter (very subtle brown/grey applied with by splattering the paint from a bristled brush such as a toothbrush) adds a little more interest.