Together with Karel Appel and Constant, Corneille helped found the Dutch Experimental Group (1948) that later gave way to CoBrA. In 1950 Cornelis Guillaume van Beverloo – his official name – settled in Paris, where he exhibited in various shows.
A 1951 journey through the Sahara made a lasting impression, resulting in a series of paintings depicting the earth as a sun-parched body of sand and stone with only a few surviving species of plant and animal. In the years that followed Corneille went on to travel the world, journeying to South America, the United States and central Africa. The works he created during this time often took the form of bird’s-eye views of flat landscapes and cities, but increasingly he incorporated more movement, using stronger colour contrasts and compact shapes.
From the late Seventies onwards, Corneille’s paintings, gouaches and drawings became more representational, incorporating large areas of colour. In a lyric style he was never to abandon, he recorded what he had seen and experienced, painting visions of tropical landscapes and gardens with plants, animals and women.
Corneille became one of the most popular Dutch painters of his time, and his work still enjoys an international reputation. Jaski Art Gallery presides over an extensive collection of his work comprising paintings, gouaches, drawings, prints, objects, ceramics and decorative objects from 1948 to the present.
Corneille died in Paris in 2010, at the age of 88.