Edouard Cortes was born on August 6, 1882, in Lagny-Torigny, a small town in the Seine-et-Marie province of France. He was born into a long line of skilled artisans. Exposed to a rich, artistic environment, 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. Regarded as something of a prodigy, Cortes received acclaim from French and foreign critics alike. 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.

When World War I savagely interrupted life in France in 1914, Cortes was a confirmed pacifist. As the devastating effects of the war spread throughout France, coming perilously close to the village where he lived with his wife and daughter, he eventually felt compelled to enlist. At age thirty-two, he joined an infantry regiment and served with distinction in the war.

After the war, Cortes once again dedicated himself to his family and his painting, producing a great variety of works and continuing to establish his style as a master of the pictorial arts. 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. Much of what Cortes captured was born in the works of Corot, Daubigny. and other masters of the Barbizon School, and later with the Impressionists as they attempted to break down the elements of reality so that they could give a strong impression of the scene before them.

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.

There are few painters today who are more immediately identifiable to the public than Edouard Cortes. His name alone is synonymous with small glowing canvases depicting the street scenes and monuments of Paris and appealing not only to people of all ages, but to all nationalities and backgrounds. His paintings are completely contemporary in concept and handling and contain such beauty by universal standards that their enthusiastic reception has been confined to no single group. Although Cortes spent virtually his entire life in France, retreating to Brittany in the 1930s after the depression, his work and his fame spread throughout the world. He had a small circle of close friends and preferred to live his life plainly and simply, remaining anonymous as an individual and letting his paintings stand on their own merit. Outside of the many French collections in which his work is represented, major collectors in Europe, Canada, and the United States own his paintings.

Cortes died on November 28, 1969 at 30 rue Macheret, Lagny-Torigny, 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.