Vénus africaine and Saïd Abdullah, de la Tribu de Mayac, Royaume de Darfour

Respected ethnographic sculptor Charles Cordier achieved his first great success with his portrait bust of a Sudanese man, Saïd Abdullah of the Mayac, Kingdom of the Darfur. Cordier submitted the original bronze bust—along with that of the companion female portrait—to London’s Great Exhibition in 1851. Queen Victoria purchased the pair in 1852; these are later versions. Made during a century marked by the spread of African colonialism, the sculptures remain transcendent by ennobling the individuals they depict.



In 1926 grant money from the Carnegie Foundation enabled the Library to purchase Arthur Schomburg’s collection of Black cultural treasures for its 135th Street Branch. The sale funded Mr. Schomburg’s subsequent collecting and research trip through France, where he purchased these sculptures, believed to be the first acquisitions he donated to the Schomburg Collection.