L’Avenue des Champs Elysees
L’Avenue des Champs Elysees
Edouard Cortes
French, 1882 - 1969
Oil on Canvas
13 x 18 in. (33.0 x 45.7 cm)
Cortès captures the Champs Élysées at the golden hour, the great avenue ablaze with the fiery oranges and golds of a spectacular Parisian sunset. Early automobiles and crowds of pedestrians fill the boulevard as autumn trees catch the last warmth of the fading light, their foliage glowing against a luminous sky. In the far distance, the Arc de Triomphe emerges as a silhouette through the haze of light and atmosphere — a compositional anchor that draws the eye deep into the canvas. Cortès works with particular painterly freedom here, his brushwork loose and confident, the entire surface vibrating with the energy and warmth of the scene. A radiant and joyful work, intimate in scale but grand in feeling.
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