Corneille

GUILLAUME CORNELIS “CORNEILLE” VAN BEVERLOO (Belgium, 1922 – France, 2010).
“Anvers sur oise,” 2010.
Woven wool rug. Edition of 125 copies.
Piece marketed as a textile print by the artist.
Signed in the lower section.
Measurements: 220 cm (diameter).

The composition of this rug unfolds a vibrant universe populated by human figures, birds, felines, and plant forms that coexist in a fantastical space, beyond any narrative logic. At the center of the scene, a large, vividly blue female figure dominates the composition, surrounded by animals, fruits, and symbolic elements that evoke fertility, nature, and the celebration of life. These motifs, recurring in Corneille’s iconography, refer to an imaginary world where reality is transformed into visual poetry. The work preserves the artist’s signature style intact: an intense palette of pure, saturated colors, outlined by thick black contours that organize the forms with great graphic clarity. This aesthetic, rooted in the principles of the CoBrA movement, combines the spontaneity of a child’s drawing, the influence of primitive art, and Corneille’s fascination with African and Eastern cultures, giving rise to a free, intuitive, and deeply expressive visual language.

Better known by his pseudonym Corneille, Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo was a Belgian painter and printmaker of Dutch descent. He began studying art in 1940 in Amsterdam, where he met painters such as Constant and Karel Appel. Intrigued by the work of Pignon, Matisse, and Picasso, he began exhibiting in 1946. He visited Hungary shortly thereafter and discovered Surrealism there, drawing inspiration from the paintings of Klee and Miró. Along with Appel, Constant, and others, Corneille was a member of the Dutch “Experimentale Group,” contributed to the magazine “Reflex,” and was part of the CoBrA movement (1948–1951). After the dissolution of the CoBrA movement, he moved to Paris. Two years later, in 1953, he began creating etchings, and the following year, ceramic works. The influence of his collection of African art, acquired during a trip to North Africa in 1949, is evident in the evolution of his work from the late 1950s onward, as he gradually moved away from abstract landscape painting to develop an imaginative style featuring bird’s-eye-view landscapes, exotic animals, and highly stylized figures. Corneille’s work is currently represented at MoMA in New York, the Slovak National Gallery, the Dordrecht Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Art Institute of Chicago, and other institutions.