CORNEILLE, Michael (1642-1708), a celebrated painter, was born at Paris, where his father was a painter of considerable merit. Having gained a prize at the academy, young Corneille was rewarded with a pension from Louis XIV. and sent to Rome, where that prince had founded a school for young artists of genius. After studying there for some time, he gave up his pension, and applied with great industry to the study of the antique. He is said to have equalled the Caracci in drawing, but in colouring he was deficient. Upon his return from Rome he was made a
professor in the academy of Paris, and was employed in all the great works then in progress at Versailles and the Trianon, where some specimens of his genius are still to be seen.