Jean Cousin the Younger ("le jeune", sometimes given as
Jehan in the old style instead of Jean) (ca. 1522–1595) was born in
Sens,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
around 1522, the son of the famous painter and sculptor
Jean Cousin the Elder
Jean Cousin (1500 – before 1593) was a French painter, sculptor, etcher, engraver, and geometrician. He is known as "Jean Cousin the Elder" to distinguish him from his son Jean Cousin the Younger, also an artist.
Career
Cousin was born at ...
ca. 1490–ca. 1560) who was often compared to his noted contemporary,
Albrecht Dürer. Having trained to become an artist under his father, Jean the Younger showed as much talent as his father, and their work is nearly indistinguishable even to the expert. Just before his death, Jean the Elder published his noted work ''Livre de Perspective'' in 1560 in which he noted that his son would soon be publishing a companion entitled, ''Livre de Pourtraicture''.
While there have been some reports that an edition of ''Livre de Pourtraicture'' was first printed in 1571 and again in 1589, no copies appear to exist. Instead, the most likely first printing of the work was 1595 in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
by
David Leclerc, with
woodcut
Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas tha ...
s engraved by
Jean Leclerc, just after Jean the Younger's death. The book is one of the most famous on the subject of
artistic anatomy and was printed again and again into the late 17th century.
Sources
* Adapted from public domain text a
Jehan Cousin le jeune Biography Historical Anatomies on the Web. US National Library of Medicine.
References
Choulant, L. ''History and bibliography of anatomic illustration.'' Trans. and annotated by Mortimer Frank. (New York: Hafner, 1962). p. 359.
''Dictionnaire de biographie francaise.'' (Paris: Letouzey et Ane, 1933- ). Entry for: Cousin, Jehan.
Mortimer, R. ''Harvard College Library Department of Printing and Graphic Arts catalogue of books and manuscripts.'' (Cambridge, Mass., Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press, 1964- ). French Books, Vol. 1, p. 199.
External links
Selected pages scanned from the original work, his ''Livre de pourtraiture'' (Paris: Jean Leclerc, 1608).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cousin Jean, The Younger
French Renaissance painters
1595 deaths
People from Sens
Year of birth unknown