Michel Corneille the Younger

Michel Corneille the Younger (1642 - Aug 16, 1708) was a French painter, etcher and engraver., born in Paris in 1642; d. at the Gobelins manufactory at Paris, 16 August 1708.

Michel Corneille was born in Paris and was the son of the painter Michel Corneille the Elder (also called Michel Corneille I). He is generally referred to as Michel Corneille le Jeune or Michel Corneille II to distinguish him from his father and is sometimes called Michel Corneille the Elder to differentiate him from his brother Jean Baptiste Corneille, also a painter.

Michel Corneille le Jeune was initially a pupil of his father, then painters of King Charles Le Brun and Pierre Mignard who had a great influence on his productions. He first devoted himself to history painting and was awarded a prize by the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, where he went to Italy where he spent several years between 1659 and 1663. He devoted a large part of his Italian stay to copying the works of the great Italian masters who marked him permanently. However, feeling hampered by the price restrictions of the Academy, he gave up money to study antiquities in his own way. Influenced by Greek Eclectism, he studied at the Bolognese Academy of Incamminati founded by the Carracci and modeled his style on theirs.

On his return from Italy, Michel Corneille was elected a member of the Royal Academy on September 19, 1663, thanks to his painting The Vocation of the Apostles. He was appointed professor at the Academy in 1690 and made numerous religious paintings such as Le Repos during the flight to Egypt or La Vocation de Saint-Pierre and Saint-André, which reveal the influence of the Carracci brothers. He was also a prolix engraver and many of his drawings, about 400, are now preserved in the Louvre.

Michel Corneille the Younger worked for the king in Meudon, Fontainebleau but also in the Grand Trianon of Versailles in which he painted Flore and Zephyr and The Judgment of Midas. At Versailles he received an important royal order to decorate the ceiling of the Queen's Nobles Salon in the Chateau's large apartments. The central panel depicts Mercury spreading its influence on the arts and sciences, surrounded by four curves and four spiers made up of allegorical paintings painted directly on the wall.

He also made frescoes for several large Parisian churches, notably the Notre-Dame Cathedral, the church of the Order of the Capuchin Friars Minor or the Saint-Grégoire Chapel of the Hotel des Invalides.

For years, Michel Corneille resided at the Manufacture des Gobelins in Paris and was therefore sometimes called Corneille des Gobelins. He died at the factory in 1708.

Selected Works:
Among his main paintings are:
The Vocation of the Apostles, 1663, Rennes Museum of Fine Arts
The Rest during the Flight to Egypt, Louvre Museum, Paris
The Vocation of Saint-Pierre and Saint-André, 1672, Museum of Fine Arts of Arras (initially part of the Mays of the Cathedral Notre-Dame)
The Baptism of Constantine, Museum of Fine Arts of Bordeaux
Flora and Zephyr, Grand Trianon, Versailles
The Judgment of Midas, Grand Trianon, Versailles
Le Repentir, Musée Condé, Chantilly (gallery of actions), 290 × 332, circa 1691 (the preparatory drawing is also preserved there)

Among his most important works engraved:
The Nativity
Flight into Egypt
Abraham traveling with Lot
Jacob fighting with the angel
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