The son of a sculptor, Jean Béraud attended the Lycée Bonaparte and subsequently studied law until 1870. He was part of a mobile unit defending Paris against the Prussians in the winter of 1870-1871. He subsequently trained in the studio of the painter Léon Bonnat and made his Salon debut in 1873. In 1890, his images of Christ in contemporary settings were the object of considerable public curiosity and critical outrage. Béraud was a founder of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, with whom he exhibited from 1910 to 1929. He was a member of the Salon des Artistes Français, winning third prize at the Salon of 1882, second prize in 1883 and a gold medal in 1889; he later became a member of the jury, and was thus ranked hors concours. He won a gold medal at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1889, and was made an Officier de la Légion d'Honneur. Béraud's distinctive works make him perhaps the quintessential chronicler of Parisian life in the last two decades of the 19th century.

Museum and Gallery Holdings

Liège: Little Brother
Lille: Meditation; Portrait of a Young Woman
London (Tate Collection): After the Misdeed (c. 1885-1890, oil on canvas)
Tours: Game of Billiards; Parisian Woman
Troyes: Madeleine