You were almost headed in the right direction. Although I have painted many small 'potboilers' in the style of Cortes, this impressionistic painting by Leo Lesser Ury (1861-1931) was the original inspiration for these street scenes.
My agent once sent me a clipping of the work from the catalogue of an auction he'd just attended. He said the painting was priced at £15000 and would I be able to do something similar? I said I'd do it for £1500 (which joke found its mark) and he eventually paid me £150 for the small (10X8") painting below:
But of course I just had to have a go at my own depiction of the Brandenburg Gate more recently:
