COUSIN, JEAN, a celebrated French painter, sculptor, and geo metrician, contemporary with Il Rosso and Primaticcio in the 16th century. The date neither of his birth nor death is known ; but he was born at Soucy near Sens, was the first Frenchman who attained distinction in historical painting, and was the principal favourite at the French court in the reigns of Henri H., Francois II., Charles 1X., and Henri III. He is sometimes in vague language termed the founder of the French school, which however means nothing more than that he was the first distinguished French historical painter. He married the daughter of a French general officer, Lieut.-Gen. Rousseau, of Sens, and he was established chiefly as a painter on glass at Sens, but he generally spent a portion of the year at Paris. His most celebrated picture is the 'Last Judgment,' painted for the Minims of Vincennes, and now in the Louvre. Though not a work of high order, it is care fully executed, and in parts well drawn though harsh, well fore shortened, and well though highly coloured. It was engraved by Peter de Jode the elder, in twelve sheets; the whole print is four French feet high, by three feet four inches wide, and one of the largest prints in existence.
Many of the old painted windows of the churches of Sens and Paris, and elsewhere, were from the designs of Cousin. There are still some remains of his paintings on glass in the church of St.-Gervais, which were his principal works of this class at Paris. He was also a writer of ability ; be wrote on geometry and perspective, and a small work on the proportions of the human body, with illustrative wood cuts, which went through many editions; the first work was published in 1560, and an edition of the second was printed in 1625 in 4to, under the following title :—‘Livre de Pourtraicture de 1laistre Jean Cousin, Peintre et Geometric's tras excellent,' &c. In sculpture his principal work is the monument of Admiral Chabot, in the church of the Celestincs. Cousin was still living in 1589, but much advanced in years. (Felibien, Entretiens sup lea Vies, dc., des Peintres.)