BERAIN, JEAN (163 7--1 71 1) , known as "the elder," French draughtsman and designer, painter and engraver of ornament, was born on Oct. 28 1637, at Saint Mihiel (Meuse) and died in Paris on Jan. 24 171I. In 1674 he was appointed dessinateur de la chambre et du cabinet du Roi, in succession to Gissey, whose pupil he is believed to have been. After the death of Le Brun he was commissioned to compose and supervise the whole of the exterior decoration of the king's ships. His numerous designs were for the most part engraved under his own superintendence, and a collection of them was published in Paris in 1711 by his son-in-law, Thuret, clockmaker to the king, in three books, Oeuvre de J. Berain, Ornements inventes par J. Berain and Oeuvres de J. Berain contenant des ornements d'architecture. M. Guilmard in Les Maitres ornemanistes, gives a list of his published works.
His son JEAN BERAIN, "the younger" (1678–1726), was his father's pupil, and exercised the same official functions after his death. CLAUDE BERAIN, brother of the elder Jean, was still living in 1726. He was engraver to the king, and executed a good number of plates of ornament and arabesque of various kinds.