My post about Impressionism not long ago sent me wading
into the depths of the Internet, which is usually a good thing. It
was definitely a good thing this time since I came across an artist I'd
never known about named Edouard Leon Cortes. Although he was well-known in his
lifetime Cortes has slipped into near-obscurity since his death in the
1960s. His work is best called post-impressionist, and you can see why
when looking at his work. His paintings encompass a wide range of
subjects, the most famous being Paris street scenes. He also painted
landscapes, still life, figures, interiors, really a bit of everything. Cortes trained with his father and spent six decades painting, most of them
in the small town of Lagny not far from Paris where he was born.
Cortes'
Paris street scenes are not only specific for the city but also almost
always involve rain or snow or twilight, or sometimes all three. There
is a deeply romantic, almost sentimental tone to his work, aglow with
warm interior light spilling onto shining streets full of bustling
pedestrians and overshadowed by a famous landmark or a striking view of a familiar treet. No mistake
that Cortes includes such well-known sights of the city as the Arc de
Triomphe the Opera, and other well-known sights. Oddly, I've never seen the Eiffel Tower
in any of his works. Still, Cortes' paintings may be a bit old-fashioned
and a bit sentimental but they're genuine in a way that similar, more
recent works aren't. Here I have in mind Thomas Kinkade, for example, whose charming
little cottages and cutesy little bridges simply reek of cynicism and
kitsch. Unlike Kinkade, Cortes' sentiment seems real, unforced and not
cynical at all.
Here are a few of Cortes' Paris scenes.
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| "Quai de louvre," ca 1925 |
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| "Le quai de la tournelle, Notre Dame," ca. 125-30 |
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"Port St. Denis," 1920
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