Except for a few years in Paris and Normandy, Cortès spent most of his life living at 22 rue Macheret and working in his studio. He and his mother would then move into a house and studio originally built for Cavallo-Peduzzi at 22 rue Macheret.
Èdouard CortèsĬortès would continue to live with his parents in Lagny until just after the death of his father in 1908. Until my last breath, because I was born from and for painting, and I will die happy if I am in front of my easel”.
“As long as I am able to get up and go to my easel, I will paint. That gives me eight to ten hours a day to paint”.Èdouard Cortès I stand in front of my easel at around eight in the morning from twelve to two I eat lunch and rest, and I paint in the afternoon till dusk, because I don’t like artificial light. Everyone spoke of and discussed the young Henri Cortès. The press in the French capital awarded this young prodigy status of a legend and placed crowns of victory upon his head. The work was well received by the critics and the public - helping establish Edouard’s favorable reputation in Paris. In 1899, at the age of 16, Èdouard Cortès exhibited his first work at the Société des Artistes Français entitled La Labour, of a farmer driving a horse-drawn plow with a god by his side, which revealed the influence of his father’s animal paintings. However, the greatest influence would come from his father and Barbizon painters Constant Troyon and Henri Harpignies. The presents of these artists working in the most up-to-date methods and style were a major influence on Cortès growth as a painter. Eugene Isabey, Charles Jean Jacque, Henri Lebasque and Camille Pissarro along with others painted in and around Lagny. For centuries, Lagny was a magnet for artists, who were attracted to the light, lush landscapes and the Marne. Èdouard Cortès would continue his artistic training at his father’s Lagny studio receiving encouragement from his brother, sister and local artists. Upon leaving school, he listed himself in the local census as “artist-painter” and his nationality as Spanish, probably as a tribute to his father.
Cortès attended a private elementary school until the age of 13. Èdouard, the youngest of the siblings, exhibited an exceptional artistic talent. She was also a member of the Union Artistique et Littéraire du Canton de Lagny, which was formed as a result of their brother André's death in 1898 His younger sister Jeanne, like her father, painted pastoral scenes of farm yards and flocks of sheep. André, the oldest, was primarily an accomplished painter of horses. All three children followed their father to pursue a career as a painter. They had two children, Jeanne and Èdouard. In 1872, Antonio married Lagny dressmaker Léontine Augustine Frappart. In 1870 at the pinnacle of the Franco-Prussian War and the death of Angéline, Antonio and his son would move back to the safety of the city to escape the perils of the war. Shortly after the birth of their son in 1866, Antonio and his young family would leave Paris to settle in Lagny, a small village east of Paris in Seine-er-Marne region where he would open a studio and became recognized as a painter of country scenes and farm animals. They would have a son André, who was born in Paris. While in the city, Antonio would marry his first wife, Angéline Cécile Berger. In 1855, Antonio traveled to Paris to attend the Exposition Universelle and fell in love with the French people and countryside. CortèsĬortès' father, Antonio Cortès, who was born is Seville, Spain was a successful painter for the royal court in Spain. After 1910, Cortès signed his paintings Èdouard Cortès, Ed Cortès or simply E. After the death of his father in 1908, Cortès would revert to using Èdouard. He would use the name Henri for several years signing his early paintings Henri, Henri Èdouard or Èdouard H. His birth certificate recorded the child as Èdouard Leon Cortès, but at the age of six weeks he was baptized Henri Èdouard Cortès. Èdouard Leon Cortès was born in Lagny, France on Auginto a family of artists and artisans. “I was born from and for painting…” Èdouard Cortès