Raymond Cogniat

Raymond Cogniat (14 April 1896, Paris- 20 Feb. 1977, Paris, France) was a French art critic, historian of art and journalist who authored in 1932 Danses d’Indochine, a commented collection of photographs with a focus on Cambodian classical dance. 

Active since 1918 in the field of avant-garde theater as a member of Théâtre de l’Atelier, he began writing on arts (theater, dance, visual arts) in Comœdia and Revue de l’Amérique latine reviews, and as a literary critic for Chantecler between 1925 and 1932. Editor-in-chief of Le Monde illustré (1932−1938), Beaux-Arts (1933−1940) and Prisme des arts (1956−1976), he also founded the magazine Arts (1945−1951), and was the art critic of Le Figaro newspaper from 1957 to 1976.

Principal Inspector of Fine Arts from 1943 to 1966, he was the curator of the French pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and contributed to the creation of the Paris Biennale in 1959 as general delegate appointed by then French Minister of Culture and Fine Arts André Malraux.

Founder of the Syndicat des professionnels de la presse artistique in 1948, Raymond Coignat presided over the First International Symposium of AICA (Association internationale des critiques d’art, International Association of Art Critics).

Publications 

• Décors de Théatre, Paris, Editions des Chroniques du Jour, 1930.
• Danses d’Indochine, Paris, Editions des Chroniques du Jour, G. Di San Lazzaro editeur, 1932.
• Simon Lissim (with G. Lechevallier-Chevignard and Louis Réau, Paris, Éditions Du Cygne, 1933.
• De la mise en scène: essai d’esthétique du théâtre, Paris, 1947.
• The century of the impressionists, London: Clematis Press, 1960. Translated by Graham Snell from Le siècle des impressionistes, Paris, Flammarion, 1959.
• Raoul Dufy, New York: Crown, 1962. Tr. by Thomas L. Callow from the French edition Raoul Duffy, Paris, Éditions Braun & Cie, 1950.
• Cinquante ans de spectacles de France. Les decorateurs de theatre, Paris, Librarie theatrale, 1955.
• Seventeenth-century painting, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1964. Tr. by Frances Partridge.
• XXth century drawings and water-colors, New York, Crown Publishers, 1966. Tr. by Anne Ross from the French edition Dessins et aquarelles du XXe siècle, Paris, Librarie Hachette, 1966.
• Monet and his world, London, Thames & Hudson, 1966. Tr. by Wayne Diles from the French. 
• Romanticism, London, Heron, 1968. T. by Joan White from the French edition Le romantisme, Lausanne, Editions Rencontre, 1966.
• Braque, New York, Crown Publishers, 1970. Tr. by Eileen B. Hennessy from the French edition Braque, Paris, Éditions Braun & Cie, 1970.
• Georges Braque, New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1980. Tr. by I. Mark Paris from the French edition G. Braque, 1976.
• Sisley, New York, Crown Publishers, 1978. Tr. by Alice Sachs from the French Sisley, Paris: Flammarion, 1978.
• In 1999, the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica added a notice on artist Pierre Auguste Renoir authored by Raymond Cogniat.