Works of Art
More than fifteen hundred works by Cochin can be identified. They include historical subjects, book illustrations, and portraits in pencil and crayon. The richest collection of his engravings, apparently selected by himself, is in the Royal Library, now part of the Bibliothèque National.
Cochin's own compositions are usually rich, gracious, and speak of a man full of erudition.
A notable piece of work is his frontispiece to the 1764 edition of Diderot's Encyclopédie, entitled Lycurgue blessé dans une sédition. Of his historical work, the best known prints include The death of Hippolytus, after François de Troy, and David playing the harp before Saul. As well as his many drawings, he illustrated more than two hundred books and also designed paintings and sculptures.
With Philippe Lebas, an early master of Cochin's, he engraved sixteen plates in the series Ports of France, of which fifteen are after paintings by Vernet and one designed by himself.
More than three hundred of his portraits are listed by Christian Michel in his monumental Charles-Nicolas Cochin et l'art des Lumières (1993).
Read more about this topic: Charles-Nicolas Cochin
Famous quotes related to works of art:
“You are always looking for already-felt emotions, just as you like to get an old pair of trousers back from the cleaners, which seem new when you don’t look too closely. Artists are cleaners, don’t let yourself be taken in by them. True modern works of art are made not by artists but quite simply by men.”
—Francis Picabia (1878–1953)
“We all agree now—by ‘we’ I mean intelligent people under sixty—that a work of art is like a rose. A rose is not beautiful because it is like something else. Neither is a work of art. Roses and works of art are beautiful in themselves. Unluckily, the matter does not end there: a rose is the visible result of an infinitude of complicated goings on in the bosom of the earth and in the air above, and similarly a work of art is the product of strange activities in the human mind.”
—Clive Bell (1881–1962)