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CORTES Biography

Edouard Cortes was born in 1882, in Lagny-Torigny, France. Edouard Cortes showed exceptional talent as a child. He received his early training in his father's studio and then enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris. At the age of sixteen he was accepted into the Salon des Artistes Français. In 1902, during his first major exhibition, he was immediately recognized as a master of style and was awarded both the silver and gold medals.

After the World War I, Cortes once again dedicated himself to his family and his painting. His reputation grew as one of the most expressive and gifted painters of Parisian street scenes. He painted boldly and freely, yet with an underlying sureness and strength, which gives solidarity and power to even the sketchiest compositions.  
Cortes captured in oils the unique and magical light of Paris. In some paintings his stonework seems to "weather" before our eyes, and in others it glistens like pearls against a summer sky. In evening compositions, night falls like a gentle veil, wistful and wreath-like holding intact shadows of the night. His windows shine brightly, his lamps glow, signs shimmer, and streets appear wet from a sultry nocturnal rain.

Cortes died in 1969 at the family home where he had been born eighty-eight years before. His long life had been dedicated to his art, and he died in the same spirit of serenity and simplicity in which he had lived and worked.