[2][3] Beyond his artistic education, Cochin taught himself Latin, English, and Italian, and he read the work of the philosopher John Locke in the original.

[7] The Horthemels family, originally from The Netherlands, were followers of the Dutch theologian Cornelis Jansen and had links with the Parisian abbey of Port-Royal des Champs, the centre of Jansenist thought in France.

Cochin, Soufflot and Marigny remained close friends on their return, when their considerable combined influence did much to bring about the triumph of Neoclassicism in France.

[5] Between 1750 and 1773, Cochin's work was directed by the Marquis de Marigny, King Louis XV's director of the Bâtiments du Roi.

[4] In 1755, he became Secretary (secrétaire historiographe) of the academy,[8] a position he still held in 1771,[3] and for one year he was director of the Société académique des Enfants d'Apollon.

[8] Cochin saw himself as an educator and was critical of the Rococo style, whose extravagance he publicly criticised in letters in the Mercure de France He argued for technical precision and for skill in the use of natural elements.

[14] King Louis XV rewarded Cochin's talents with a patent of nobility and membership of the Order of Saint Michael and granted him a pension.

[5] 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.

[17] Cochin's published and unpublished texts, including over six hundred surviving letters, and the lectures he gave at meetings of the academy, are listed by Michel.