Jean Béraud

Jean Béraud studied at Lycée Condorcet and Beaux-Arts de Paris. Training under Léon Bonnat is recorded. The recorded working language is French. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are portrait. Places of work recorded in the authority are Paris. Residence is recorded at rue du Boccador. Positions recorded include deputy chairperson. Works named in the authority record are La Pâtisserie Gloppe. Work by Jean Béraud is recorded in the collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Tate, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Fine Arts Ghent (MSK). Distinctions recorded are Officer of the Legion of Honour and Knight of the Legion of Honour.

• Name — Jean Béraud • Birthplace — Saint Petersburg • Died — 4 October 1935 • Place of death — Paris • Resting Place — Montparnasse Cemetery • Education — Salon (Paris) • Known for — Depictions of Paris life • Awards — Legion of Honour (1894)

• Illustration — Symphony in Red and Gold Béraud was born on 12 January 1849 in Saint Petersburg. His father, also called Jean, was a sculptor and was likely working on the site of St. Isaac's Cathedral at the time of his son's birth. Béraud's mother was Geneviève Eugénie Jacquin. Following the death of Béraud's father, the family moved to Paris. Béraud was in the process of being educated as a lawyer until the occupation of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Béraud became a student of Léon Bonnat and exhibited his paintings at the Paris Salon for the first time in 1872. He did not gain recognition until 1876, with his painting On the Way Back from the Funeral. He exhibited with the Society of French Watercolorists at the 1889 World's Fair in Paris. • Illustration — A Windy Day on the Pont des Arts • Illustration — Café Gloppe He painted many scenes of Parisian daily life during the Belle Époque in a style that stands somewhere between the academic art of the Salon and that of the Impressionists. He received the Légion d'honneur in 1894. Béraud's paintings often included truth-based humour and mockery of late 19th-century Parisian life, along with frequent appearances of biblical characters in contemporary situations. Paintings such as Mary Magdalene in the House of the Pharisees aroused controversy when exhibited, because of such settings. Toward the end of the 19th century, Béraud dedicated less time to his own painting but worked on numerous exhibition committees, including the Salon de la Société Nationale. Béraud never married and had no children. He died in Paris on 4 October 1935 and is buried in Montparnasse Cemetery beside his mother.

Béraud was popular in France and was appreciated by Guy de Maupassant who called him "adorable's adversaries" (Le plus charmant des fantaisistes). His work was completely ignored by art historians of the period. After the Revolution, Russian artists received Béraud's work with irony, seeing them as the embodiment of Western commercial consumption, indulging, in their opinion, in the bourgeois tastes of the rich middle-class. Painting style gradually shifted from academic towards impressionism. While the major Impressionists fled the chaotic milieu of Paris and painted landscapes of the surrounding areas, Béraud, like his friend Édouard Manet (1832–1883), and in some of his paintings, Edgar Degas (1834–1917), depicted the busy environment of late-nineteenth-century urban life. Artistic techniques used by Béraud, in particular when drawing the so-called À la salle Graffard, were later adopted by other artists. The upper part of the picture is hidden in a light haze, the spectators are depicted in the foreground enthusiastically responding to the speech, while the Anarchist speakers stand out against a darker background.

• Illustration — Blanche Vesnić (née Ulman) • Illustration — Le Café de Paris • Illustration — La Lettre • Illustration — Personnages • Illustration — Au Bistro • Illustration — Après la faute • Illustration — La Partie De Billard • Illustration — The Drinkers • Illustration — À la salle Graffard • Illustration — Les Grands Boulevards: Le Théâtre des Variétés • Illustration — Representation of the Théâtre des Variétés • Illustration — The Milliner on the Champs Elysées • Illustration — Sortant De La Madeleine, Paris • Illustration — Home, Driver • Illustration — l'Église de la Sainte-Trinité • Illustration — L'Attente • Illustration — Le Retour de l'enterrement • Illustration — La Sortie du bourgeois • Illustration — Le Boulevard Saint-Denis • Illustration — Jeune femme traversant le boulevard • Illustration — Boulevard des Capucines • Illustration — Paris Kiosk 1880–1884, Walters Art Museum • Illustration — Parisienne place de la Concorde • Illustration — Le Bal Mabile • Illustration — Parisienne in a Red Dress (c.1900), Oil on panel, 13 1/8 x 10 1/2 in. (33.3 x 26.7 cm), Clark Art Institute • Illustration — Seaside Café (1884), Oil on canvas, 21 5/8 x 13 1/8 in. (54.9 x 33.3 cm) Clark Art Institute • Illustration — Windy Day, Place de la Concorde (c. 1890), Oil on panel, 22 1/16 x 14 13/16 in. (56 x 37.6 cm), Clark Art Institute

Jean Béraud is recorded as having received Officer of the Legion of Honour and Knight of the Legion of Honour.