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Berain, Jean, I
(b Saint-Mihiel, Lorraine, bapt 4 June 1640; d Paris, 24 Jan 1711). French designer, ornamentalist and engraver. The Berain family moved to Paris c. 1644. Berain’s father, also called Jean Berain, and his uncle Claude Berain were master gunsmiths. In 1659 Berain published a series of designs for the decoration of arms, Diverses pièces très utiles pour les arquebuzières, reissued in 1667. In 1662 he engraved for the guild of locksmiths a series of designs by Hugues Brisville (b 1633), Diverses inventions nouvelles pour des armoiries avec leurs ornements. It would seem that by this date Berain’s skill as an engraver was well known. Around 1667 he decorated and signed a hunting gun (Stockholm, Livrustkam.; see ARMS AND ARMOUR, §II, 2(iii) and fig. 8) for Louis XIV, which probably served as his introduction to the court. Through the influence and support of Charles Le Brun, in 1670 Berain was employed by the crown as an engraver. In January 1671 he received 400 livres in payment for two engravings (Paris, Bib. N., Cab. Est.) recording the ceiling decoration by Le Brun of the Galerie d’Apollon in the Louvre, Paris, for which he also designed the painted stucco grotesques. In 1674 Berain succeeded Henry Gissey (1621–73) as Dessinateur de la Chambre et du Cabinet du Roi; his new and quite different responsibility, to provide ‘toutes sortes de dessins, perspectives, figures et habits ... pour les comédies, ballets, courses de bagues et carrousels’, shows that he had probably worked with Gissey. From this date Berain was one of the principal artists of the court, working for the Bâtiments du Roi and the Menus Plaisirs. In 1677 he was appointed Dessinateur des Jardins, and several prints survive (Paris, Bib. N.) of his designs for parterres. In 1679 he was granted lodgings in the Grand Galerie du Louvre, and in 1680 he became chief designer of scenery and stage machinery for the Paris Opéra. Berain was attached to the household of the Dauphin in 1680 and 1681, with the title Fourrier des Loges. In 1687 he was appointed Dessinateur des Vaisseaux du Roi, probably through the recommendation of the Marquis de Seignelay (d 1690), Ministre de la Marine. In his official capacity Berain provided designs for costumes and decorations for all manner of royal festivities and ceremonies. His costume designs included those for Le Triomphe de l’amour (1681; Paris, Louvre; see THEATRE, fig. 14 and §III, 3(ii)(b) for further discussion); he also produced costume designs for court masques and carrousels, fireworks, funeral decorations and mausoleums and a design (Paris, Archvs N.) for one façade of the Louvre to celebrate the birth of the Duc de Bretagne in 1704.
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- Berain, Jean, I (1640-1711)
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