Frédéric Samuel Cordey (1854 - 1911) - Portrait Of A Man, Dated 1895

Oil on canvas signed and dated, lower right
Dimensions: 41 x 33 cm - with frame: 62 x 54 cm

For this painting, the artist leaves the landscape to paint a portrait of a man. If he changes his pictorial genre, he does not abandon his touch by which he made himself famous. Landscaper of the free landscape school of the 19th century, he brings color to life through the juxtaposition of hatched touches. Here, his style serves his subject. It represents a man with a lively expression. His eyes, drawn in one line, are framed by his square jaw, elongated nose and open forehead. The painter adorns his subject with simple clothes: the idea is not to detail the fabric, but to dress it in shades of purple and plum. Once again, Frédéric Samuel Cordey asserts himself as a champion of color and design.

Frédéric Samuel Cordey evolves with the Impressionists, he presents four paintings with the group for the fourth Impressionist exhibition in 1877.
Pupil of Isodor Pils and Gustave Boulanger at the School of Fine Arts in Paris, he is part of the group (Monet , Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley) who rebels against academic education to follow the path of Impressionism. The artist participated in the Salon d'Automne in 1903. He rarely exhibited and art critics were laudatory about him. A retrospective exhibition took place at the Choiseul gallery in Paris in 1913. His fortune allowed him to work according to his own aspirations without depending on criticism and the help of merchants. Appreciated by Gustave Caillebotte and particularly linked to Auguste Renoir, it is featured in several paintings by the artist, including the “Bal du moulin de la galette”. An attentive landscaper, he enjoys depicting the surrounding nature; If the Auxerre countryside is one of the painter's favorite places, he stays not far from Camille Pissarro in Neuville-sur-Oise as well as in Eragny-sur-Oise.

Bibliography:. Article by Adolphe Thalasso, “Exposition F.-S. Cordey ”, in L'Art et les artistes, monthly review of ancient and modern art, Oct. 1913 - 3 Feb. 1914, p. 237.
André Roussard, Dictionary of painters in Montmartre in the 19th and 20th centuries. Cat. exp. Christophe Duvivier, The painters and the Oise, the painters-engravers of the Oise Valley, [exhibition "The painters and the Oise, the painters-engravers of the Oise Valley", Pontoise, Musée Tavet- Delacour, of Feb. to 23 Sep 2007], Pontoise éd. from the museum, 2007. Sophie Monneret, Impressionism and its era, Paris, Robert Laffont, 1987

Museums:. Madame Cordey making tapestry, 1879, Paris, Musée d'Orsay. . Peach dish, 1906, Nevers, Nièvre prefecture.