He was the nephew of violinist Jacques Lemière the eldest (who died in 1771).
According to the Mercure de France of April 1761, at the age of nine and a half, he obtained great success at the Concert Spirituel with a sonata by Lemière and another by Felice Giardini.
In 1791 Bertheaume left France and held several posts in northern Germany until 1801.
Via Copenhagen and Stockholm he emigrated to Russia, where he became first violin in the tsar's court orchestra.
Among Bertheaume's numerous pupils were Jean-Jacques Grasset and his nephew Charles Philippe Lafont.