Throughout his life, the Dutch artist Corneille (1922–2010) sought to create a poetic idiom. He began his career at the art academy in Amsterdam in 1940, but after the war he left the deeply conservative art scene of his homeland in favour of Budapest and Paris. In the post-war years, he met the artists with whom he founded CoBrA in 1948. This encounter with the vital works of Danish artists, who had developed a modern idiom during the war, was a turning point for the young artist.
The Sun, the Flower, the Cat and the Bird
Corneille drew inspiration for his distinctive idiom from a wide-ranging field. His images are laden with meaning, which is understood intuitively and through emotions. Corneille employed a two-dimensional, colourful idiom. He called himself “The painter of joy”. A positive outlook on life, coupled with the broadly appealing idiom, is the reason why Corneille was one of the most popular CoBrA artists. His vivid paintings from the early 1970s abound with strong symbols, with the woman, the sun, the flower, the cat and the bird given a prominent place – the incarnation of imagination, freedom and movement.
An Epic About All the Joys of Life
According to Corneille, he lived for periods as a nomad, leading him far beyond Europe’s borders. In South America, he drew inspiration from the magnificent nature and colourful wildlife. Corneille developed a special fondness for Africa. He was particularly fascinated by the colours, the smells, the original culture and the artistic forms of expression he found there. Corneille’s oeuvre can collectively be described as a narrative epic of all the joys of life, hence the continued popularity of his works among collectors at auctions all over the world.
