Description

This fictionalized portrayal is a companion piece to the Bust of Saïd Abdullah. Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier initially titled this stylized and highly detailed sculpture Vénus africaine (African Venus), thus conflating the ancient Greek goddess of love and beauty with his rendering of a Black woman. Her parted lips and bare shoulders and chest evoke the erotic associations of her former namesake deity, while the draping of her costume suggests Classical refinement.

In 1851 the anthropological gallery of the National History Museum in Paris commissioned casts of this work and the likeness of Abdullah. Cordier’s ethnographic busts reflect mid-19th-century discourse on aesthetics and colonization as well as pseudoscientific theories of race.

Provenance

Cast in Paris, 1851 and believed to be the original pair cast for the artist [see letter from Gerald Kerin in curatorial object file]. Sold directly by the artist to an English (Devon) private collector, 1851 [according to letter from William Redford, in curatorial file; Cordier brought ethnographic busts to the 1862 London Exposition, see Exotische Welten, p. 357]. Purchased from same collector by William Redford, the agent for Gerald Kerin, Ltd. [see same letter in curatorial file]. Sold by Gerald Kerin, Ltd. to the Art Institute, 1963.