Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cochran, William
COCHRAN, WILLIAM (1738–1785), painter, born at Strathaven in Clydesdale, N.B., 12 Dec. 1738, came of a family of distinction in Glasgow. He received his first instruction in art in 1754 at the academy founded in Glasgow by the well-known printers, Robert and Andrew Foulis. Towards the close of 1761 he went to Italy, and became a pupil of Gavin Hamilton; there he painted several historical and mythological pictures, of which the best known were 'Daedalus and Icarus' and 'Diana and Endymion.' Not having any very great ambition, he returned to Glasgow, and devoted himself to portrait-painting, practising both in oil and in miniature; in this line of art he attained great proficiency. Among the portraits painted by him was that of William Cullen, professor in Edinburgh University, and first physician to his majesty in Scotland, which was engraved in mezzotint by Valentine Green. Cochran never exhibited his works, and seldom put his name to them; hence he is not so well known as he deserves to be. He continued to reside at Glasgow, and died there on 23 Oct. 1785, aged 47. He was buried in the cathedral in that city, where a monument was erected to his memory.
[Redgrave's Dict. of English Artists; Gent. Mag. (1786), lvi. 82; Cooper's Biog. Dict.; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers; J. Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits.]