In 2003, Corneille traveled to Jaffa, Israel, where he exhibited at the Ramat Gan Museum of Israeli Art on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Specially for this exhibition, he created four paintings—this work is one of those rare and remarkable canvases. It is also included in the book published alongside the exhibition, underscoring its museum provenance and documentation.
The painting is a powerful and expressive example of Corneille’s late oeuvre. Bright, saturated colors dominate the surface, with a radiant yellow serving as the underlying background against which vivid blue is rhythmically placed. The composition, featuring the characteristic elements of a star, woman, and bird, is constructed with playful yet bold lines and geometric forms. The interplay between transparent and opaque layers of paint creates a vibrant sense of depth, while the energetic contour lines and free brushwork give the work a spontaneous and dynamic character.
Dimensions: 130 × 100 cm
Dimensions with frame: 145 × 115 cm
Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo was born on July 3, 1922 in Liege, Belgium. He is better known under his pseudonym Corneille and is a Dutch artist.
Although mostly self-taught, Corneille studied art at the Academy of Art in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. He was one of the founders of the Experimentele Groep Holland in 1948 and in 1949 he was also one of the founders of the COBRA group, together with Karel Appel, Jan Nieuwenhuijs, his brother Constant Nieuwenhuijs and the Belgians Christian Dotremont and Joseph Noiret.
Cornielle was active within the group from the beginning, not only painting but also publishing poetry in the Cobra magazine. The poetic Corneille was strongly influenced by Miro, Klee and Picasso. After the group dissolved in 1951 he moved to Paris and began collecting African art. These primitive artifacts became evident in his works, which began to take on a more imaginative style, like landscapes seen from a bird's eye view, exotic birds and stylised forms. He lived together with the Dutch photographer Henny Riemens (1928-1993).
From the 1960s his work became more and more influenced by his African art and this lead to Corneille developing a more figurative style where women, birds, flowers and figures played a significant role. Corneille believed painting was not a job or hobby but a call.
Corneille died on September 5, 2010 at the age of 88 in France, where he lived and worked. He had lived in the Maison d’Oise in Val d’Oise for the last years of his live. Corneille was buried at the graveyard of Auvers-sur-Oise, where in 1890 Vincent van Gogh was also buried.
