Born in Vienna to a well-known French portrait painter, René Théodore Berthon, he emigrated first to Great Britain, and then to Canada, sometime before 1845.

He specialised in portraiture of high-ranking British and Canadian officials, developing a sense of realism and simplicity.

As well, his knowledge of art in Paris would have been significant: his father was a student of Jacques Louis David.

[2] The first verifiable record of his immigration to Canada is an advertisement for his portraiture services in a Toronto newspaper in 1845.

Berthon was notable in the history of Canada for his creation of formal portraits characterized by a sense of realism.