(-), Corneille (Liège 1922 - Paris 2010) Les...

Corneille
(Liège 1922 - Paris 2010)
Les Grandes Falaises
Signed and dated '55 lower right
Signed, titled and dated '55 on the reverse
Oil on canvas, 65 x 91.9 cm
Provenance:
- Collection Hans & Alice de Jong, Hengelo
- Collection Elisabeth den Bieman de Haas, Amsterdam
Literature:
- C.M. Cluny, Corneille, Editions de la Différence, Paris, 1992, p.101
- Exhibition catalogue, Corneille und Afrika, Kunstmuseum Bochum, 1998, cat. no. 34
- Exhibition catalogue, Corneille Retrospectiva, Palacio de Sástago, Zaragoza, 2001, p. 78, cat. no. 14
Exhibited:
- The Arts Council of Great Britain, London, Friends in Contemporary Dutch Art, cat. no. 13
- Gemeentemuseum Arnhem, Oog in oog met Hans en Alice de Jong, 28 June - 6 September 1970, cat. no. 13
- Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Zomertentoonstelling (according to a label on the stretcher)
- Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem, Een selectie uit de verzameling van werken van Hans en Alice de Jong, October - November 1970
- Sophienholm, Lyngby, 'International Billedkunst, Alice og Hans de Jong's Samling', January - June 1971
- Palacio de Sástago, Zaragoza, Corneille Retrospectiva, 4 October - 25 November 2001
- Museum Bochum, Corneille und Afrika, 21 February - 13 April 1998
- Cobra Museum Amstelveen, Het Hongaarse Avontuur en de ontmoeting met de Europese School, 11 January - 17 March 2002
Note:
Corneille was one of the leading founders of CoBrA, a movement that was radicalizing the conservative Dutch art world in the early 1950s.
This exceptional artwork was made in his abstract period, before he started painting colourful fantasy landscapes dominated by the sun, women, birds and cats.
In the mid-twentieth century he was inspired by African culture and nature, with which he became well acquainted during his trips to the African continent. The forces of nature and its split-open rocks and stones were translated into his paintings when he returned to his studio in Paris.