Édouard Cortès

ÉDOUARD CORTÈS (France, 1882- 1969).
"Paris."
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 33 x 46 cm; 48 x 61 cm (frame).
Work of the French post-impressionist artist Édouard Cortès (1882-1969). Known as "the Parisian Poet of painting", Cortès specialized in urban landscapes of Paris, capturing the city in different seasons and light conditions. His paintings are notable for the contrast between natural and artificial light, creating a magical atmosphere at dusk. Cortès painted more than 300 pictures of Paris throughout his career, showing its streets, squares and the life of its inhabitants.
Édouard Léon Cortès was a French painter of Spanish and French descent, famous for his urban landscapes of Paris painted in different weather and light conditions. Cortès captured the life of the French capital with lyricism and sensitivity, capturing its changing atmosphere, whether in rain or fog, day or night.
He was born on August 6, 1882 in Lagny-sur-Marne, a town located about twenty kilometers east of Paris. His father, Antonio Cortés, had been a painter at the Spanish royal court, suggesting a family background deeply linked to the arts. In 1914, Édouard married Fernande Joyeuse, with whom he had a daughter, Jacqueline Simone, born in 1916. The image of a woman accompanied by a child appears recurrently in his work, which could be interpreted as an intimate allusion to his wife and daughter.
Although a convinced pacifist, the proximity of the war to his place of origin led him to enlist in a French infantry regiment at the age of 32. He was sent to the front, where he was wounded by a bayonet. After his recovery in a military hospital, he received the Croix de Guerre and was reassigned as a draughtsman to make sketches of enemy positions, taking advantage of his artistic training. Later, his strong personal convictions led him to refuse the decoration of the Legion of Honor offered by the French government. He was demobilized in 1919.
From a very young age he showed a remarkable inclination towards painting. At the age of 17 he entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and in 1901 he held his first exhibition, which brought him immediate recognition. He always stressed his artistic independence; when a journalist asked him if he had been a pupil of Luigi Loir, he answered with a play on words: "No, only a pupil of myself".
In 1945 his works were presented for the first time in North America, which marked the beginning of an even greater international projection. In the last year of his life, he received the prestigious Prix Antoine-Quinson of the Salon de Vincennes, crowning a profoundly coherent artistic career, in which Paris was not only a pictorial subject, but also an emotional and aesthetic symbol.