Celebrated as the “Parisian Poet of Painting," Edouard Léon Cortès was a master at rendering the vibrant energy and romantic beauty of the City of Light on canvas. This composition, which captures the Boulevard Animé near Montmartre, is no exception. Brilliantly rendered to express the charm of old Paris through the masterful application of broad brushstrokes, this oil on canvas absolutely captivates the viewer.

Cortès captured the very essence of the Belle Époque, a period in Paris when fashion, art, and culture flourished thanks to progress and prosperity. With warm splashes of color, he composed his nostalgic narrative, a romanticized vision of a bygone age. The dimly lit street is alive with the bustle of pedestrians, carriages, and merchants, each a part of the idyllic Parisian setting.

Born at Lagny-Sur-Marne, a town just 20 miles outside of Paris, in 1882, Cortès began his artistic studies at the age of 13 under the instruction of his father, who had been a highly successful painter for the Spanish Royal Court. Just four years later, the young Cortès embarked on a five-year-long course of formal art education at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. It was there that he developed his distinctive impressionistic flair, imparting splashes of color and heavy strokes of paint into his Parisian cityscapes. His now-legendary cityscapes quickly gained popularity in France, and later in America and Canada, earning great admiration from his peers, patrons, and critics. Today, Cortès continues to be lauded as one of the great painters of the Belle Époque.