Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo
(1922 - 2010)

Corneille Biography
(1922 - 2010)

Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo was born on July 3rd 1922 in Liege, Belgium . His parents were Dutch and moved back to the Netherlands when he was 12. He is better known under his pseudonym Corneille (crow in French). Corneille was a painter, printmaker, ceramists, poet and writer. Corneille initially trained in drawing and engraving at the Amsterdam Rijksakademie (1940 to 1943), but is considered a self taught painter. His earlier work had been naturalistic. In 1945 he was inspired by the joie de vivre of French painters, and in particular by the work of younger artists such as Edouard Pignon (1905-1993), which led him to adopt a lyrically Cubist style. In 1947Corneille visited Hungary returning to the Netherlands in 1948. In 1948 Corneille was one of the founders of the Nederlandse Experimentele Groep  (NEG), which published the periodical  ‘Reflex’ ; and one of the founders of the COBRA movement, which has had great influence on Scandinavian art. As a co-founder of COBRA (the experimental artists group), he became a leading abstract expressionist painter and printmaker along with such notables as Karel Appel(1921-2006), Pierre Alechinksy (b.1927), Asger Jorn(1914-1973) and Jean Dubbuffet (1901-1985). In addition to painting he also published poetry in the COBRA magazine. On his return from travels in North Africa Corneille participated in the 1949 NEG and CoBrA exhibitions at the Galerie Colette Allendy in Paris and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. In 1950 Corneille settled permanently in Paris and began exhibiting at the Salon de Mai. He studied etching with Stanley William Hayter in 1953 in Paris, and ceramics with Tullio Mazzotti in Albisola, Italy, during the summers of 1954 and 1955.

The poetic Corneille was influenced by Miró, Picasso and Paul Klee but claimed the most profound connection to van Gogh because of their shared passion for color, form and nature. After the COBRA 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 stylized forms. In the mid 1950s he traveled and exhibited throughout Western Europe.

He first came to the United States in 1958 having two years earlier won First Honorable Mention at the Carnegie Institute. Here he was heralded for his spirited and imaginative works. Unlike others, Corneille packed form and content in an otherwise restricted genre. From the late 70’s, his colorful tropical landscapes and gardens inhabited animals and women in a figurative manner. His work is in the collection of the: Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; collections of several American museums, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Chazen Museum of Art-University of Wisconsin; The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Canada; museums in South America, Africa, Australia and the Dordrechts Museum, Netherlands. From 2000 till his death Corneille lived and worked in Paris. He made several visits to Israel where he worked in the Jaffa Atelier. He died at Auvers-sur-Oise, France on September 5, 2010. On his request he was buried at the same cemetery as Van Gogh.

Corneille is best known for radicalizing the conservative Dutch art world in the early 1950’s, making modern art not only acceptable, but embraceable as well. He placed familiar subjects: birds, cats, women and landscapes in mythological and often childlike contexts, imbuing them with spontaneity and bright, sensual reds. “I am a painter of joy”, Corneille remarked at a 2007 exhibition of his work at the Cobra Museum, in Amstelveen, near Amsterdam. Corneille (crow in French) adopted this name by design. He likened himself to a bird which flies as it wishes and symbolizes free spirit and dynamism. The bird is a reoccurring feature in his work. Corneille was a gifted printmaker and his print work was very extensive. A bilingual (French and Italian) catalog raisonné of prints by Corneille titled: ‘L'opera di grafica Corneille’ was published by Editrice La Nuova Foglio in 1975. Etabli par Elverio Maurizi, cet ouvrage de référence répertorie - sur une période allant de 1948 à 1974 - un ensemble d'un peu plus de 300 œuvres sur papier ou estampes originales, comprenant l'ensemble des lithographies, linogravures, gravures ou eaux-fortes, sérigraphies, y compris lorsque - comme très souvent - ces œuvres ont été réalisées dans le cadre du portefeuille ou du livre illustré, ou composées pour l'affiche ou la revue ; si la toute première lithographie de Corneille sera réalisée à la Rijksacademie d'Amsterdam en 1943, l'artiste travaillera aussi sur la pierre (1948) pour la revue « Reflex », organe du Groupe Expérimental hollandais. Prepared by Elverio Maurizi, this reference book lists over 300 works on paper and original prints, including all lithographs, linocuts, etchings, engravings and serigraphs produced from 1948 to 1974.