Before joining the Impressionists he worked with Franc-Lamy, particularly at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts where he was taught by Lehmann who was a pupil of Ingres. About 1876 he attended Renoir's studio in the Rue Saint Georges, and also went to his newly acquired house in the Rue Cortot. Renoir put Cordey among several others also dancing, in his painting Le Bal au Moulin de la Galette. Soon after, at the time of the third Impressionist exhibition in 1877, Renoir invited Cordey and Franc-Lamy to join them, but this was the only Impressionist exhibition in which Cordey showed. In 1881 he went to Algeria, where he met Renoir, and on his return, exhibited in Paris at the 1877 Salon des Independants. Among Cordey's works are several landscapes in private collections as well as his View near Auvers-sur-Oise, A Lane at Auvers- sur-Oise and Millstones at Neuville-sur-Oise. His style recalls Renoir, Pissarro and Sisley.

Based on Phaidon encyclopedia of Impressionism, Maurice Serullaz, Phaidon, 1978