On 1stDibs, find a collection of original Édouard Leon Cortès paintings.įramed: 27-3/4 x 33-3/8 inches (70 x 84.5 cm.)Īn elegant night view of the Parisian Republic Square, with amazing light effects that catch us. Ten years after his death in 1969, the city of Lagny - where Cortès had spent most of his life - named a street in his honor. Cortès was prolific - he painted the streets of Paris and its well-known landmarks as well as majestic landscapes, interiors, boats and scenes that unfolded at Parisian harbors. He remarked that his oil paintings, pastels and watercolors should speak for themselves. When asked about his depictions of horse-drawn carriages in the streets of Paris as well as outdated fashions - dresses and other garments that bore the hallmarks of pre-1930s fashion design, for example - he cited a fantasy he had about being able to “stop time” so that the Second World War wouldn’t have taken place.Ī humble man, Cortès refused interviews and preferred anonymity. Later, during World War II, Cortès and his family spent time in Normandy to escape the horrors of the conflict.
When he was able to return to his easel, Cortès desired solely to paint peaceful scenes of France’s capital city. The artist spent time sketching enemy positions on the front lines, and this may have deepened his anti-war resolve. Cortès went on to study at École des Beaux-Arts.Īs World War I gained steam, Cortès willingly joined the French military effort even though he was a pacifist. He found success among art critics as well as the public and earned renown in France. The son and pupil of Spanish painter Antonio Cortès, his influences included Barbizon painters Constant Troyon and Henri Harpignies.Įstablishing a name for himself early on in his long career, Cortès first exhibited a painting he called La Labour at the Société des Artistes Français when he was still in his late teens. As early as 1903, works by Cortes were being sold on the secondary market in Paris and five years later in New York, a tribute to his popularity as a contemporary painter, a popularity that has become increasingly widespread.Édouard Leon Cortès is widely known for his Impressionistic renderings of Parisian promenades and rustic French hamlets. His work was, and has remained extraordinarily popular throughout Europe and the United States. Cortes exhibited with the Salon de la Societe Nationale and also showed with the Salon des Independents. Throughout his career, the Cortes view of Paris remained that of the pre and immediate post Great War years, Paris seen in a spirit of nostalgia with horse drawn omnibus, trams and the ever-present glow of lights shining in shop windows. He maintained a studio in Normandy for a number of years and worked there during the Second World War, painting landscapes, harbour scenes, and interiors with Breton families, in addition to his Paris works. Subsequently, he returned to painting, continuing predominantly with his Paris views. It was in 1901 that Cortes showed his first Paris view, the precursor to many painted over a career of seventy years.ĭuring the Great War, Cortes served in the Army, was wounded and awarded the Croix de Guerre. His early landscapes show the influence, not only of his father but the Barbizon and ‘plein air’ schools. He first exhibited at the Societe des Artistes Francais in 1899 a landscape which was well received by critics, in part owing to the age of the artist, Cortes was seventeen. His father, Antonio Cortes (fl.1887-1894), a landscape painter of Spanish descent had settled in Lagny in 1855 and it was with his father that Cortes trained as an artist.
Edouard Léon Cortes was born in the town of Lagny (Seine-et-Marne) east of Paris.