The Vénus Africaine Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier Bronze, 1852 Purchased by Queen Victoria The Royal Collection |
Sculptor Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier was fascinated with ideal beauty and desired to create busts showing “ideal heads.” Here, we see his representation of the feminine ideal in a bust of an anonymous female, African sitter. Cordier sculpted from life, often taking casts of the features of his sitters. In this case, admittedly, he “ironed out” any flaws in the woman’s face so that she would approximate his vision of the ideal.
Queen Victoria was quite taken with this sculpture as well as its companion piece, purchasing both in September of 1852. The sculpture was considered so unusually attractive that many reproductions were created of it.
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