Triumphal Arch 

Edouard Cortes painted this evocative Parisian street scene, Triumphal Arch, in the early to mid-20th century. Here we see the Arc de Triomphe, not only as a monument of civic pride but as a backdrop to everyday life. Cortes’s painting belongs to a tradition of French art that sought to capture the changing face of Paris. The Arc itself, commissioned by Napoleon, stands as a symbol of imperial power, but here it is softened, almost made familiar, by the inclusion of bustling figures and traffic on the rain-slicked streets. The muted palette evokes a melancholic atmosphere, reflecting perhaps the interwar period’s social climate. The deliberate juxtaposition of the old and the new – horse-drawn carriages alongside early automobiles – tells a story of a city in transition. To fully appreciate this work, we might consider historical photographs and urban planning documents from the time. These resources would allow us a deeper understanding of the artist’s visual choices and the social context in which they were made.