Cornelis Mair artwork • painting • previously for sale Still life with a turbo shell cup and Chinese vase

Cornelis Le Mair, internationally famous for his soothing showy still lifes that seem to revive old times, graduated cum laude in portrait and figure painting at the Antwerp Art Academy using traditional painting techniques. A decisive moment in Le Mair's life was a visit to the Rembrandt exhibition in 1956 in the Rijskmuseum in Amsterdam, which he attended with his father. He marveled at the works of art by the Old Masters and decided that he wanted to 'unravel all the secrets hidden behind the cracked varnish'. After graduating, he continued to live in Antwerp and supported himself by performing as a troubadour in cafés. He also built up his first customer base there. From the mid-1970s he moved to the farm near his hometown of Eindhoven, where he lives to this day. Over the years, he transformed this farm into his own 'palace' with lavish, colorful decoration with self-designed furniture, musical instruments, trinkets and art objects that he brought back from his distant travels. He built a tower studio and several buildings in his garden. In addition to still lifes and nudes, he also spent nine years working on the Vanitas triptych, which was exhibited in 1995 in the Kempenland Museum in Eindhoven.