Jean Cousin the Younger ("le jeune", sometimes given as

Jehan Jehan is a predominantly male given name. It is the old orthography of Jean in Old French, and is rarely given anymore. It is also a variant of the Persian name Jahan in some South Asian languages. People with the given name Jehan * Jahan (na ...

in the old style instead of Jean) (ca. 1522–1595) was born in

Sens Sens () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yonne Departments of France, department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in north-central France, 120 km southeast from Paris. Sens is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture and the second la ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

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 a ...

ca. 1490–ca. 1560) who was often compared to his noted contemporary,

Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer ( , ;; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, Old master prin ...

. 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, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

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 that ...

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 The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), operated by the United States federal government, is the world's largest medical library. Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the NLM is an institute within the National Institutes of Health. It ...

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

Historical Anatomies on the Web. US National Library of Medicine.
Selected pages scanned from the original work, his ''Livre de pourtraiture'' (Paris: Jean Leclerc, 1608). {{DEFAULTSORT:Cousin Jean, The Younger French Renaissance painters People from the Province of Île-de-France 1595 deaths People from Sens Year of birth unknown