Jean-Baptiste Berré

Pauzelle, Essai sur le Salon de Bruxelles de 1811, n.p.

Pauzelle, Essai sur le Salon de Bruxelles de 1811, n.p.

Salon de Bruxelles, 1811;

Salon de Paris, 1812, no. 54.

Born in Antwerp in 1777 and trained by the animal and landscape painter Balthasar Ommenganck, Jean-Baptiste Berré would quickly find success by specializing in animal painting.

Like many of his Flemish compatriots of this generation, he left his home town and moved to Paris in 1808, where his career gained new impetus, especially when the Empress Joséphine showed enthusiasm for items of tableware that Berré, to make ends meet, had decorated with animal motifs. Charmed by these, Joséphine commissioned him to paint a Lioness with Cubs on varnished sheet metal, which he exhibited at the 1810 Salon. From then on, Joséphine became a loyal client, opening many doors for him in Paris.

He continued to exhibit regularly at the Paris Salon, as well as in Brussels, as was the case with this majestic Lion Slaying a Gazelle, exhibited for the first time in Belgium before being presented, in 1812, at the Salon du Louvre.

Having been made an accredited animal painter at the Jardin du Roi (the future Jardin des Plantes) as soon as he arrived in Paris, Berré went there regularly to study from life the animals he planned to paint on canvas. In 1812, he was even assigned a lodging there, so that he could stay as long as he liked, facilitating his access to the animals. This magnificent lion, painted faithfully in precise detail, placing his paw proudly on the gazelle he has just brought down, is the result of one of the advanced studies Berré was able to make, from life, of the wild animals in the Jardin. The painting, still on its original canvas and in excellent condition, testifies to the artist’s skill in depicting the animal to perfection in its natural state. The lion’s coat, mane and mouth are rendered with an almost photographic realism.