This superb pair of beautifully cast and polychrome bronze and onyx figures of young boys as orange sellers are only known in one other pair that is significantly smaller and is listed in the Catalogue Raisonné written for the 2004 Charles Cordier exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris (de Margerie, 2004, op. cit., nos. 351 and 352, p. 187) as “Localisation actuelle inconnue”. The carefully chased and modeled heads of the figures were fashioned after Cordier's marble head of a boy known as Enfant Kabyle (L. de Margerie, 2004, op. cit., cat. no. 181, p. 163) which was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1857 (fig.1).
The marchands are both grand and luxuriant in the sculptor's use of varied materials and colors and they exemplify the taste for polychromy in sculpture which became an international phenomenon during the 19th century, sparked by artistic debates about the painting of ancient statuary and inspired by ancient Roman and Renaissance sculpture composed of variously colored marbles. On a trip to Algeria in 1856 Cordier discovered onyx deposits in recently reopened ancient quarries and began to use the stones in his sculptures. He ingeniously fitted bronze heads into the vibrantly patterned stone, creating exciting and expensive representations of human beings at all levels of society. Cordier also utilized the range of colors that could be obtained from bronze: he often silvered bronze surfaces which then oxidized them, blackening the metal, and he often painted bronze, as is seen in the bunches of fruiting vines in the present pair of sculptures.
Charles Cordier was one of the greatest French sculptors of the 19th century. In 1851, he was appointed ethnographic sculptor to the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle in Paris, a post he held for fifteen years, and during his career, Cordier established an international reputation through his sympathetic and arresting portrayals of sitters from different races. The ethnographic busts for which he became most famous often betray a startling naturalism, tempered by dramatic poses and exotic costumes.
Interest in the different peoples of the globe preoccupied French society in the 19th century. The fields of anthropology and ethnology became increasingly high profile, and exhibitions which showcased living people from other regions of the world drew huge crowds. Chiefly concerned with the search for beauty in all peoples, Cordier wrote in 1865 before a trip to Egypt, ‘I wish to present the race just as it is, in its own beauty, absolutely true to life, with its passions, its fatalism, in its quiet pride and conceit, in its fallen grandeur, but the principles of which have remained since antiquity’ (as quoted by Margerie, op. cit., p. 28). Few contemporary commentators, with the exception of writers such as Victor Hugo, the Abbé Grégoire, and Madame de Staël, offered such enlightened views. Cordier travelled to Algeria in 1856, where he modeled his famous Mauresque d’Alger chantant (Moorish Woman of Algiers Singing) and to Egypt in 1866, where he conceived the highly celebrated model, Cheik Arabe du Caire (Arab Sheik of Cairo).
While the contemporary vogue for Orientalism helped establish Cordier, his work stood out from the overwhelmingly decorative representations of the genre because they served as almost scientific studies of physiognomy and costume. Cordier’s lengthy trips abroad and studies from life gave his works an authenticity and authority which few could rival. His originality, seen in his use of color and mixed materials combined with his technical mastery of casting, carving, enameling and patinating, was extraordinary. His work was avidly collected by wealthy art lovers across Europe, including Napoleon III and Queen Victoria.