Jean-Baptiste Berré

He enrolled at the Academy of Antwerp where he studied, among others, with Balthasar Paul Ommeganck, a renowned animal painter.

The members undertook to meet monthly to show and discuss their works and enjoy the tuition of the older generation of painters such as Ommeganck and Willem Jacob Herreyns who were invited to act as teachers of the members.

At the end of 1800 the pre-existing artist organisation Konstmaatschappij, which had been established in 1788, was merged with the Genootschap der Kunsten.

At the Salon of 1810, he exhibited a Lioness with lion cubs on varnished sheet metal, commissioned by the Empress.

[9] This harmless painting became politically charged at one point when Berré produced copies of it showing an imperial eagle killing all kinds of animals.

[5] In the spring of 1815, Berré formed together with Léon de Wailly and Nicolas Huet the team of resident artists of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris who were tasked with painting a portrait of Saartjie Baartman.

Saartjie Baartman was a Khoisan maidservant from the Cape Colony who at the age of 21 years had been smuggled to London.

A panel of leading scientists and naturalists led by Georges Cuvier conducted a 'scientific' research of Baartman.

The delicate watercolour portraits which they made of her figure were widely reproduced and became collectible popular art.

His paintings were present in all the major collections of the First Restoration and are currently distributed in many French provincial museums.

Thus in his Romulus and Remus suckled by the she-wolf exhibited in Paris in 1814, the two figures are believed to be by the hand of Mattheus Ignatius van Bree.