Jean Bérain the Elder

Jean Bérain the Elder (Saint-Mihiel, Meuse, 1640—January 24, 1711, Paris) was a draughtsman and designer, painter and engraver of ornament, the artistic force in the Royal office of the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi where all the designs originated for court spectacle, from fêtes to funerals, and many designs for furnishings not covered by the Bâtiments du Roi. [Kimball notes that Bérain never received a single payment for work done for the Bâtiments du Roi during the whole of Mansart's surintendance. (Kimball p 62).] The "Bérainesque" style of light arabesques and playful grotesques was an essential element in the "style Régence" that led to the French rococo.

Born in the Austrian Netherlands, the son of a master gunsmith, in whose line of work engraving was a prominent technique, he spent his career at Paris. Long after his death the connoisseur Pierre-Jean Mariette wrote of him, "Nothing was done, in whatever genre that it might have been, unless it were in his manner, or where he had given designs for it." ["On ne faisait rien, en quelque genre que ce fût, sans que ce soit dans sa manière où qu'il en eût donné les desseins". Quoted in Kimball, p 40.] Through his engravings and those of his son, his style was highly influential beyond the court and Paris, notably in the Low Countries, Germany and London. His close friendship with Nicodemus Tessin the Younger ensured that Bérain's own nuance in the Louis XIV style was transmitted to court circles in Sweden

Bérain was established in Paris by 1663. [His earliest known works show him as engraver of twelve plates in the collection "Diverses pieces de serrurerie inventés par Hughes Brisville et gravés par Jean Bérain" (Paris, 1663), and in 1667 ten plates of designs for the use of gunsmiths. ("EB" 1911)] On 28 December 1674 he was appointed "dessinateur de la Chambre et du cabinet du Roi" in the Menus-Plaisirs (a post he retained until his death), in succession to Henri de Gissey, whose pupil he is believed to have been. [A contemporary document called Gissey "maistre de Berain" (Kimball p 40)] From 1677 onward he had workrooms and an apartment in the Galeries du Louvre near to those of André Charles Boulle, for whom he made many designs for furniture. After the death of Charles Le Brun Bérain was commissioned to compose and supervise the whole of the exterior decoration of the king's ships. His first designs for royal interiors date from the years 1682-84.

He was inventive and industrious, and, beginning with interiors at the Hôtel de Mailly (1687-88) assimilated and adapted Raphaelesque grotesque ornament [Fiske Kimball found an inspiration for Bérain in the arabesques painted under the direction of Le Brun in the panelling of the Galerie d'Apollon at the Palais du Louvre, c. 1670, some of which were engraved by Bérain in 1671-72, his first work for the Crown (Kimball, p 31 note, p 32, figs 8 and 9)] to the taste of the time. He provided arabesque designs for the manufacture of Beauvais tapestry. At Meudon for Louis, "le Grand Dauphin", whose favourite designer he remained [Fiske Kimball records that Bérain provided the costumes for the Dauphin's masquerade "Le Triomphe de l'Amour" as early as 1681 (Kimball p 46); Kimball discusses in detail the Dauphin's "Cabinet" at Meudon.] Bérain's decors, beginning in 1699, initiated the Régence style that was a precursor of the Rococo.

His numerous designs were for the most part engraved under his own supervision; a collection of them was published in Paris in 1711 by his son-in-law, Jacques Thuret, clockmaker to the king from 1694. There are three books, "L'Oeuvre de J. Bérain", "Ornements inventés par J. Bérain" and "Oeuvres de J. Bérain contenant des ornements d'architecture".

Hector Guilmard in "Les Maîtres ornemanistes", gives a complete list of his published works.

His son and pupil, Jean Bérain the Younger, (1678-1726), was born and died in Paris. He exercised the same official functions after his father's death and worked in a very similar taste.

Notes

References

*Fiske Kimball, "Creation of the Rococo," (Philadelphia Museum of Art) 1943
*Jérome de La Gorse, "Bérain, dessinateur du Roi Soleil" 1986
*Roger-Armand Weigert, "Jean I Bérain" 1936