French family of painters, draughtsmen and designers. From the 17th century, when Andr? F?libien (in his Entretiens) wrote the first important critical appraisal of Jean Cousin, until the 20th century, historians had fused two artists, father and son, into one personality that had become almost entirely mythical, with a career that spanned virtually the entire 16th century. The archival researches of Roy demonstrated that there had been an elder Jean Cousin, born probably no earlier than 1490 and surely not much after 1505, who died in 1560 or possibly 1561, and a younger Jean Cousin, his son, also an artist, who was a student at the University of Paris in 1542 and died around 1595. A seemingly unrelated sculptor of the same name was active in Paris in the 1540s but was dead by 1549. No work by him has been identified, but he was commissioned in 1541 to execute six statues for the cloisters of the convent of the C?lestins in Paris. Although few paintings can be securely attributed to (1) Jean Cousin (i), he was a major figure in the classicizing trend of French art in the 1540s and 1550s. (2) Jean Cousin (ii) is a more shadowy figure, who carried on his father's workshop and style into the second half of the 16th century.

The following members have entries:

• Jean Cousin (i) [le p?re]
• Jean Cousin (ii) [le fils]

See the Abbreviations for further details.