The Dutch painter Corneille, whose real name was Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo (°1922), has died aged 88. Corneille is widely regarded as one of the most important Dutch painters of the twentieth century.
He was born in 1922 in Liège, Belgium. His parents were Dutch. When he was 12, the family moved back to the Netherlands. However mostly a self-taught man, between 1940 and 1942 he also took courses at the Amsterdam Academy. Initially influenced by Picasso, he distanced himself from the Spanish artist following World War II.
Cobra
Aged 26, Corneille and Dutch painter Karel Appel travelled to Paris. Along with Belgian artists Christian Dotremont and Joseph Noiret and Danish artist Asger Jorn, they founded the avant-garde movement COBRA in 1948. The acronym refers to members’ home cities: Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam.
Three years later, the group disbanded. Corneille later said the group was at its very peak then.
Popular
In 1950, Corneille had moved to Paris, where he went through three more artistic periods. The first, marked by an abstract lyricism, was followed by a period dominated by landscape paintings that took their inspiration from his travels through Africa. In his last period, he mainly painted birds, flowers and women in bright, cheerful colours.
It was this last style that made him popular among the general public, especially after his acceptation of commercial commissions, such as making printed pens and ties, often to the dismay of his admirers.
His last years were difficult. He had problems with mental health and his family.
He died at Auvers-sur-Oise, France, where Van Gogh ended up at the end of his life. The mayor of the village promised him he would be buried in the same cemetery as Vincent and his brother Theo.
Image: Corneille, La Reine du Monde 3, 1998.
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