French school of the 18th century
Presumed portrait of Thomas Corneille (1625-1709), brother of Pierre Corneille
Miniature on ivory
95 x 75 mm.
Brother of Pierre Corneille whom he succeeded on November 23, 1684; he was unanimously elected and received on January 2, 1685 by Racine.
Thomas Corneille left forty-two dramatic works and had great success in the theater: the most famous, Ariane, the Count of Essex, tragedies, the Festin de Pierre, a versified comedy by Molière. Palissot reproached him later for his "romantic intrigues", and La Harpe for his "flabby and incorrect versification"; Boileau said of him that he was "only a young man from Normandy". Voltaire says, that except Racine "he was the only one of his time who was worthy of being the first below his brother". Voltaire says elsewhere that he was a "man who would have a great reputation if he had not had a brother".
His physiognomy is known to us through his portrait by Jouvenet, from the suite of 94 portraits of academicians commissioned by the Abbé Dangeau, director of the Académie Française, now presented in situ (inv. MV 2933).
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