CHRISTIAN CORBET
Sculptor
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Sculpture as an Inquiry
My sculpture is not an act of representation; it is an inquiry. Each work begins with a question rather than an image—what is essential, what must be carried forward, and what must be restrained so that presence can exist truthfully in material. This way of working is rooted in a modernist conscience: a belief that form carries moral weight, and that clarity, discipline, and restraint are not limitations but responsibilities.
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I have been shaped, intellectually and ethically, by individuals whose lives embody this conscience. Dame Jane Goodall taught me that observation demands humility—that one must listen longer than one speaks. Margaret Atwood demonstrates how restraint in language can sharpen truth rather than soften it. In my own work, I try to sculpt with that same economy, allowing structure and proportion to speak without embellishment.
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Phyllis Lambert shaped my thinking through her insistence that cultural work carries obligation—to history, to evidence, and to the future. Her understanding of architecture as stewardship rather than spectacle affirmed my belief that permanence is ethical, not aesthetic. From her, I learned that restraint is not absence, but care: that what endures does so because it has been rigorously considered and responsibly made.
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From Prince Philip, I absorbed a sense of duty toward continuity—an understanding that culture, like stewardship, is something you inherit and must leave intact. Dr. Brenda Milner reinforced my belief that identity is not theatrical but structural, assembled slowly through memory, balance, and resilience. That insight lives in my approach to the human head, where psychological presence emerges not from expression, but from coherence.
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Figures such as Beverley McLachlin, William Hall, and William Lore remind me that integrity is quiet work. Authority, courage, and legacy are not performed—they are constructed through consistency and restraint. My sculptures aspire to the same condition. They are meant to endure, to be returned to, to hold their ground outside fashion or immediacy.
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In this sense, my practice is modernist not by style, but by conscience. I sculpt as an act of ethical attention—removing what is unnecessary so that what remains can carry weight. Sculpture, for me, is a form of stewardship: of material, of memory, and of the human presence entrusted to my hands.
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Christian Corbet
Artistic Lineage
Christian Cardell Corbet (1966 - ) Canadian Sculptor. Principle works: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother at 100 (British Museum); HRH The Prince Philip (Royal Collection); Egyptian Pharoah King Tutankhamun.
Elizabeth Bradford Holbrook (1913 – 2009) Canadian Sculptor. Principle Works: Head of Emanuel Hahn (National Gallery of Canada); Dr. James H. Robinson (The National Portrait Gallery).
Carl Milles (1875 – 1955) Swedish. Swedish Sculptor. Principle works: Orpheus Fountain (Stockholm); The Hand of God (Millesgarden). Considered Sweden’s greatest sculptor. Of the 20th century.
Auguste Rodin (1840 – 1917) French Sculptor. Principle works: The Age of Bronze; The Thinker (Rodin Museum); The Gates of Hell (Rodin Museum). Considered one of France’s greatest sculptors.
Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran (1802 - 1897) Designer/Educator Principle work: Portrait of the Artist (Louvre).
Guillaume Guillon Lethière (1760 – 1832) French Painter. Principle works: The Death of Cato (Hermitage Museum). Son of a freed Black slave from Sainte-Anne (Guadeloupe).
Jean-Baptiste Descamps (1714 – 1791) Dunkirk/French Painter and Writer. Principle works: Self Portrait; The Pupil, (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen); The Trader (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen); Peasant Cauchois Sitting with her Family (École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris). Friend of Voltaire.
Antoine Coypel (1661 – 1722) French Painter and Decorator. Principle works: Ceiling of the Chapel of Versailles. Appointed “First Painter to the King” in 1716.
Noel (Christmas) Coypel (1628 -1707) Painter and Decorator. Principle work: The Resurrection of Christ (Museum of Fine Arts, Rouen). Participated in the decoration of Versailles.
Charles Le Brun (ca.1619 – 1690) French Painter and Decorator. Principle works: Decorations at Versailles and Galerie des Glaces.
Simon Vouet (1590 – 1649) French Painter. Principle works: Crucifixion (Genoa); Allegory of Wealth (Louvre); Sleeping Venus (Hungarian National Museum). The leading French painter of the first half of the 17th century. Court Painter to Louis XIII. Student of his father Lawrence Vouet.
Brutal Youth: Corbet the Poet
One of Corbet’s most intimate artistic expressions is his poetry collection, Brutal Youth, published in the 2025. Corbet’s Brutal Youth is an introspective, emotionally raw set of poems delving into themes such as adolescence, identity, vulnerability, trauma, and the painful beauty of growing up in a pre-pubescent world.
Highlights of Brutal Youth:
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Raw Emotional Bareness – Corbet’s poetry emulates the unfiltered emotional turbulence of youth: pride, guilt, longing, confusion, and the aching awareness of loss.
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Blunt Language, Layered Meaning – Lines often read like confessions, yet layered with metaphor and subtle musicality—revealing lessons learned in pain and defiance over abuse.
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Sensory Memory & Nostalgia – The poems evoke vivid memories—first love, parental disillusion, dreams collapsing—a mirror to many readers.
Critics, many in the psychiatry fields, have noted its voice plunges “beneath the braggadocio of pre-adolescence into real, unguarded sorrow,” celebrating it as a courageous contribution to Canadian confessional poetry.
Canadian Art Publications
RECENT WORKS
Ware of 1812 Hero Frederick Rolette Death Mask commissioned for the Royal Canadian Navy arrives at the Naval Museum of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Lieutenant Commander William Lore portrait commissioned for the Royal Canadian Navy arrives at the Naval Museum of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
NOTE:I have built my career not having applied for arts grants, subsidies, or other, choosing instead to rely on my own financial stability to support my practice. I have long believed that public arts funding should be reserved for artists who truly need that support to advance their work. By stepping back from those resources, I am helping ensure that limited grant dollars remain available for emerging and financially vulnerable artists. From time to time I offer financial support to artists in need.
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“Psychology is a fundamental tool used to observe and document all creations—nowhere more so than in the human face.”
— Christian Corbet