The French engraver Jacques-Joseph Coigny was the son of Joseph Urbain Coigny, a goldsmith from Versailles , and Marie Anne Fontaine, descended from a Swiss family who had settled in France during the reign of Henri III. Coigny was a pupil of Joseph-Benoît Suvée and Jacques-Philippe le Bas.

He travelled to Italy in 1788 to study Italian renaissance art, and in 1794 married Marie Amélie Legouaz, daughter of the engraver Yves-Marie Le Gouaz; they had a son, Joseph (179–-1829), who married the daughter of the engraver Alexis Chataignier (1772–1817), and who took over his father’s business.

Coigny exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1802 to 1806, and in addition to L’Arétin he illustrated works by Jean-Michel Moreau, Jean de La Fontaine and Voltaire.