Horned. P (1893-1996), Young Woman Reading, Oil On Canvas Signed Lower Right, Golden Frame

Pierre CORNU, painter from Aix from the beginning of the century, will have known an exceptional longevity. Born in 1893 in Salon and died in Aix-en-Provence in 1996, he lived through the 20th century. Pierre Cornu was a pupil of Othon Friez, and his work evolved during the long years of his career. Throughout his life, he never stopped painting, from his 20th birthday to his death in 1996. The painter did not hide it, he was an epicurean, in love with women and their beauty, celebrating them through his artistic creation. Women are Cornu. And Cornu is women: on his canvases, they are represented from every angle. Alternately naked, asleep or dreamy. Beyond his main subject, Pierre Cornu enjoyed doing and undoing genres by broadening his artistic palette. He forsook women for a moment to let himself be transported by the seasons, painting landscapes, still lifes, but also portraits – making him a talented and renowned portrait painter. With his brushstroke, he magnified the colors of nature, the luminosity of the sun and the singular features of his models, giving a particular vitality to his story. "Before being anything, figurative or not, realistic or transcendent, scholarly or naive, a work of art, and in particular a painting, must be happy", he liked to summarize. Cornu, who painted in joy and exaltation, got down to this exercise throughout his career, which will have earned him the reputation of being a man simply happy to live.