Place de la Bastille 

Edouard Cortes's painting captures a wet, bustling Place de la Bastille with oil on canvas. The composition is anchored by a dominant vertical axis, the July Column, around which the city's vibrant life unfolds. The muted palette of grays and browns is punctuated by warm bursts of light emanating from shops and street lamps. Cortes masterfully uses light to create depth and atmosphere. Reflections on the wet pavement not only mirror the scene but also dissolve the sharp boundaries between the architectural and natural elements, a kind of semiotic mirroring, if you will. Note how the brushstrokes vary from smooth glazes in the sky to textured dabs in the foreground, adding dynamism. The structure of the painting, with its emphasis on light and reflection, challenges a fixed representation of urban space. It presents an image where the modern city is in constant flux. This reflects a broader discourse of modernity and its impact on perception and representation, as theorized by Walter Benjamin. As such, Cortes invites us to reconsider our relationship with urban spaces and to recognize their transient and subjective nature.