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| Michel Corneille the Younger Aspasia among Greek Philosophers ca. 1670-80 oil on canvas, mounted on panel Château de Versailles |
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| Michel Corneille the Younger Iris and Jupiter 1701 oil on canvas Château de Versailles |
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| Michel Corneille the Younger The Calling of Peter and Andrew before 1708 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes |
Michel Corneille the Younger - French painter, etcher and engraver, born in Paris, 1642, died at the Gobelins manufactory at Paris, 1708. He was the son of the artist Michel Corneille of Orléans, and on this account is sometimes called the "younger Michel." He is also and more commonly known as the "elder Corneille" (Corneille l'Aîné), to distinguish him from a younger brother, Jean-Baptiste Corneille, also a painter. His father was the first and the most indefatigable of his teachers; his other masters were Pierre Mignard and the celebrated Charles Lebrun. Devoting himself wholly to historical painting, Michel won the Academy Prize and went to Rome on the king's pension; but feeling his genius hampered by the restrictions of the prize, he gave up the money so that he might study the antique in his own way. Coming under the then-powerful influence of the Eclectics, he studied with the Carracci and modelled his style on theirs. In 1663 he returned to Paris and was elected a member of the Royal Academy. . . . In 1673 he became an adjunct, and in 1690 a full professor in the Academy.
Corneille painted for the king at Versailles, Meudon, and Fontainebleau, and decorated in fresco many of the great Paris churches. . . . His style, reminiscent of the old masters, is the conventional style of the Eclectics; his drawing is remarkably careful and exact, the expression on the faces of his religious subjects is dignified and noble, the management of chiaroscuro excellent, and the composition harmonious, but suggestive of the Venetian School. From his insufficient knowledge of the composition of pigments, the colour in many of his pictures has suffered such a change that it is today disagreeable; but the artist possessed a good colour-sense, and contemporary records go to prove that his colour was refined and pleasing. . . . For many years Corneille resided at the Gobelins manufactory, and was sometimes called "Corneille des Gobelins."
– excerpted from the Catholic Encyclopedia (1907-1914)
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| Michel Corneille the Younger The Purification of Aeneas ca. 1663 drawing National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
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| Michel Corneille the Younger Studies of Women's Heads ca. 1680-1700 drawing National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
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| Michel Corneille the Younger Rest on the Flight into Egypt ca. 1680-90 drawing Harvard Art Museums |
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| Michel Corneille the Younger Studies of various Figures and Heads before 1708 drawing Princeton University Art Museum |
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| Michel Corneille the Younger Apollo attended by Nymphs before 1708 drawing Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| Michel Corneille the Younger Copies after Raphael's Finding of Moses before 1708 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Michel Corneille the Younger Coat of Arms of France and Navarre surrounded with the Order of St Michel supported by Personifications of Fame and Glory, with two Putti before 1708 drawing Morgan Library, New York |
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| Michel Corneille the Younger Hercules at the Crossroads before 1708 drawing Minneapolis Institute of Art |
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| Michel Corneille the Younger Narcissus before 1708 drawing Städel Museum, Frankfurt |
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| Michel Corneille the Younger Neptune and other Marine Deities paying Homage to Louis XIV before 1708 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Michel Corneille the Younger Satyrs and Nymph in a Landscape before 1708 drawing British Museum |
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| Michel Corneille the Younger Group of Satyrs and Nymphs before 1708 drawing British Museum |