The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (120 page)

Courtois , Jacques
(1621–76) and
Guillaume

(1628–79).
French painters, brothers, active in Italy and often known by the Italian forms of the names, Giacomo and Guglielmo Cortese. They came from Burgundy and both had the nickname ‘Il Borgognone’ or ‘Le Bourguignon ’. Jacques was a prolific painter of battle scenes, fairly close in style to those of Salvator
Rosa
, but more colourful. Guillaume was a pupil of Pietro da
Cortona
and mainly painted al-tarpieces. He was also an engraver. Both brothers worked in Rome for much of their careers and they sometimes collaborated. Another brother, a Capuchin priest, Padre
Antonio
, and a sister,
Anna
, were also painters.

 
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(
c.
1490–1560/61).
French painter, engraver, and designer, active in his native Sens and from about 1538 in Paris. He had a successful career as a painter and a designer of stained glass and tapestries, but very little surviving work can be securely attributed to him. The only certain documented works are three tapestries from a series on the life of St Mammès, which he contracted to design in 1543 (two are in Langres Cathedral, for which they were woven, the other in a private collection). The painting
Eva Prima Pandora
(Louvre, Paris), however, can also be confidently given to him, as the attribution goes back almost to his lifetime, and two windows in Sens Cathedral are also traditionally attributed to him. In 1560 he published a treatise on
perspective
. The career of his son
Jean the Younger
(
c.
1522–
c.
1594), a painter and engraver, follows a similar pattern. He too worked in Sens and Paris and had a great contemporary reputation, but again little documented work survives. His most important painting is a
Last Judgement
(Louvre), but he is best known as a book illustrator; his
Livre de Fortune
, a book of
emblem
drawings, was published in 1568, and he also illustrated editions of the
Metamorphoses
of Ovid (1570) and the
Fables
of Aesop (1582). The work of both father and son shows strong Italian influence and is remarkable for its independence from the prevailing style of the École de
Fontainebleau
.

 
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(1677–1746).
The best-known member of a dynasty of French sculptors. He was trained by
Coysevox
(his mother's brother), and like him worked a good deal for the court. His vigorous style was formed partly on the example of
Bernini
, whose work he saw in Rome, where he studied 1695–1703. Guillaume's masterpieces are the celebrated pair of
Horse Tamers (The Marly Horses
), originally made for the royal Château at Marly and set up there in 1745, but now in the Place de la Concorde in Paris.
Nicolas
(1658–1733), Guillaume's brother, was also employed in court circles, and his work can be seen at Versailles and in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris. He was probably the teacher of
Roubiliac
.
Guillaume II
(1716–77), the son of Guillaume I, inherited his father's technical skill but little of his originality. Nevertheless, he enjoyed a successful career, his most important work being the monument to the Dauphin in Sens Cathedral (
c.
1767).
François
(d. 1690), the father of Guillaume I and Nicolas and the founder of the dynasty, was a minor woodsculptor working in Lyons.

 
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(1815–79).
French historical and portrait painter, a pupil of
Gros
and
Delaroche
. He is chiefly remembered for his vast ‘orgy’ picture
The Romans of the Decadence
(Musée d'Orsay, Paris), which was the sensation of the
Salon
of 1847. As with other ‘one-picture painters’, his reputation has sunk with that of his big work, which now is often cited as the classic example of the worst type of bombastic academic painting, impeccable in every detail and totally false in overall effect. His more informal works, however, are often much livelier in conception and technique, and as a teacher he encouraged direct study from landscape.
Manet
was his best-known pupil, and others included
Puvis de Chavannes
and
Fantin-Latour
.

 
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(1886–1956).
One of the most individual Scottish painters of the 20th cent. Whereas the central tradition of modern Scottish painting has been one of rich colouring and lush, free brushwork (see, for example,
SCOTTISH COLOURISTS
), Cowie worked in a strong, hard, predominantly linear style—highly disciplined rather than intuitive (he made many preparatory drawings and often worked on a picture for several years). He took his subjects from what he saw around him, but he was also inspired by the Old Masters, often using their compositions as a startingpoint, without actually imitating them. Among his contemporaries he was perhaps closest in spirit to John
Nash
, an artist he greatly admired. They shared an ability to infuse the ordinary with a sense of the mysterious. Cowie taught at several art schools in Scotland, his pupils including Robert
Colquhoun
, Robert
MacBryde
, and Joan
Eardley
.

 
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