Corneille

“CORNEILLE” GUILLAUME CORNELIS VAN BEVERLOO (Belgium, 1922 – France, 2010).
“La Traviata,” ca. 2000.
Wool-woven rug.
Edition of 125 copies.
Piece marketed as a textile print by the artist.
Signed at the bottom.
Measurements: 218 x 218 cm.

“La Traviata” transposes the figurative universe developed by Corneille in his mature years—when birds, flowers, and large fields of color had become essential elements of his artistic vocabulary—into the realm of textiles. The work belongs to a series of artist-designed rugs made of wool and produced in limited editions.

Rather than mechanically reproducing a pictorial image, the textile work enhances Corneille’s graphic style: sharply defined outlines, flat surfaces, and an almost emblematic structure that makes the most of the wool’s density and texture. The signature, woven into the fabric itself at the bottom, is part of the design.

The bird motif is particularly representative of the artist’s late work. Following the experimental Cobra period and a phase of greater abstraction, Corneille returned in the late 1960s to a poetic figurative style in which birds, women, flowers, and celestial bodies took center stage. The Cobra Museum itself highlights this return to a recognizable and intensely colorful iconography, which the artist later extended to his graphic work and numerous media.

Corneille was one of the key figures of Cobra, a movement that helped revitalize postwar European art through spontaneous, free, and expressive creation. Trained at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam and later based in Paris, his career was also shaped by his travels through Africa and the Americas, which were decisive for his artistic vision. In 1966, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam dedicated a retrospective to him, and his work is part of the collections of institutions such as the Cobra Museum and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.