French painter, sculptor, etcher, engraver, and geometrician,
born at Soucy, near Sens, 1500; died at Sens before 1593,
probably in 1590. Cousin began his long art-life in his native
town with the study of glass-painting under Hympe and Grassot.
At the same time he was diligently applying himself to this
branch of art, wherein he was to become a master, the young man
became a great student of mathematics and published a successful
book on the subject. He also wrote on geometry in his student
days. In 1530 Cousin finished the beautiful windows for the Sens
cathedral, the subject chosen being the "Legend of St.
Eutropius". He had also painted the windows of many of the noble
châteaux in and around the city. The latest date on any of his
Sens work, 1530, points to this as the year he went to Paris,
where he began work as a goldsmith; but the amount and kind of
his productions in the precious metals are alike unknown. In
Paris Cousin continued his eminent career as a glass-painter,
and his masterpiece, the window