Denys Cochin
Encyclopedia
Baron Denys Marie Pierre Augustin Cochin (1 September 1851, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 - 24 March 1922, Paris) was a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 writer and Catholic right-wing politician.

Denys Cochin was the son of the baron Augustin Cochin, also a politician and writer. After graduating from the school Louis-le-Grand, he joined the military as a quartermaster
Quartermaster
Quartermaster refers to two different military occupations depending on if the assigned unit is land based or naval.In land armies, especially US units, it is a term referring to either an individual soldier or a unit who specializes in distributing supplies and provisions to troops. The senior...

 in the eight cuirassier
Cuirassier
Cuirassiers were mounted cavalry soldiers equipped with armour and firearms, first appearing in late 15th-century Europe. They were the successors of the medieval armoured knights...

, before becoming flag carrier for General Charles Denis Bourbaki
Charles Denis Bourbaki
Charles Denis Sauter Bourbaki was a French general.He was born at Pau, the son of Greek colonel Constantin Denis Bourbaki, who died in the War of Independence in 1827...

. After the end of the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...

 in 1871, he was attache
Attaché
Attaché is a French term in diplomacy referring to a person who is assigned to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency...

 in the embassy in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 for a year. Returning to France in 1872, he undertook studies in chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

 in the laboratory of Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur was a French chemist and microbiologist born in Dole. He is remembered for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and preventions of diseases. His discoveries reduced mortality from puerperal fever, and he created the first vaccine for rabies and anthrax. His experiments...

. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, he worked on the development of explosives and chemical weapons.

In 1881 he was elected councilman of the VIIe arrondissement
VIIe arrondissement
The 7th arrondissement of Paris is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. It includes some of Paris's major tourist attractions, such as the Eiffel Tower and the Hôtel des Invalides , and a concentration of such world famous museums as the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée du quai...

 of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. From 1893 to 1919, he represented Paris in the French National Assembly
French National Assembly
The French National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. The upper house is the Senate ....

. He was the principal spokesman of the Catholic party defending the religious educational liberties and congregations against the attacks of the administrations of Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau and Émile Combes
Émile Combes
Émile Combes was a French statesman who led the Bloc des gauches's cabinet from June 1902 – January 1905.-Biography:Émile Combes was born in Roquecourbe, Tarn. He studied for the priesthood, but abandoned the idea before ordination. His anti-clericalism would later lead him into becoming a...

.

Symbolizing the alignment of L'union sacrée
L'union sacrée
L'union sacrée was a political truce in France in which the left-wing agreed, during World War I, not to oppose the government nor to call any strike...

, he was Minister of State in Aristide Briand
Aristide Briand
Aristide Briand was a French statesman who served eleven terms as Prime Minister of France during the French Third Republic and received the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize.- Early life :...

's fourth administration from 29 October 1915 to 12 December 1916, and then under-secretary for foreign policy matters responsible for dealing with blockade of Germany under Alexandre Ribot
Alexandre Ribot
Alexandre-Félix-Joseph Ribot was a French politician, four times Prime Minister.-Biography:He was born in Saint-Omer, Pas-de-Calais.After a brilliant academic career at the University of Paris, where he was lauréat of the faculty of law, he rapidly made his mark at the bar...

 from 20 March to August 1917. He resigned predicting the breakup of L'union sacrée.

He wrote several books such as
  • L’Évolution de la vie (The Evolution of Life; 1885, crowned by the Académie française
    Académie française
    L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...

    )
  • Le Monde extérieur (The exterior World; 1895)
  • Contre les barbares (Against the barbarians; 1899)
  • L’Esprit nouveau (The new Spirit; 1900)
  • Ententes et ruptures (Alliances and breakups; 1905)


He was elected to Seat 11 of the Académie française on 16 February 1911.

As an art collector, Cochin bought several impressionist
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...

 paintings together with Paul Durand-Ruel
Paul Durand-Ruel
Paul Durand-Ruel was a French art dealer who is associated with the Impressionists. He was one of the first modern art dealers who provided support to his painters with stipends and solo exhibitions....

 including one by Claude Monet
Claude Monet
Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...

.

Denys Cochin was the father of the historian Augustin Cochin
Augustin Cochin (historian)
Augustin Cochin was a French historian of the French Revolution. Much of his work was posthumously published in an incomplete state after he was killed in action in World War I....

.
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