Theatre du Vaudeville 

Edouard Cortes painted this view of the Theatre du Vaudeville using oils, a classic medium for capturing the vibrant street scenes of Paris. The quick, impressionistic brushstrokes give life to the wet Parisian streets and the bustling crowd. Oil paints allowed Cortes to build up layers of luminous color, capturing the warm glow of the theater lights against the evening sky. This wasn't just about documenting a scene; it was about evoking a mood, a sense of the city's energy. The making of paintings like this relies on an infrastructure – from the factories producing pigments to the art dealers who sold Cortes's work to a receptive middle class, eager to own a piece of Parisian charm. Each brushstroke is not just the artist's gesture, but also a reflection of the commercial ecosystem that supported his practice. By focusing on the materials and processes, we see how Cortes’s work is embedded in the social and economic context of his time, revealing that even a seemingly straightforward painting is a product of complex relationships between artist, industry, and audience.