Jacques-Henri Bernardin

Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (also called Bernardin de St. Pierre) (January 19, 1737 Le HavreJanuary 21, 1814 Éragny, Val-d'Oise) was a French writer and botanist. He is best known for his 1787 novel Paul et Virginie. In 1795 he was elected to the Institut de France, and in 1803 to the Académie Française.

From Antoine-Louis Barye: Sculptor of Romantic Realism by Glenn F. Benge, p.8:

"Bayre's predators devouring their living prey indulge the emotions in a Romantic way of course, but they also embody a romantically moralizing point of view like those held by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Mme de Staël, and Victor Hugo. The Oeuvres complètes of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre appeared in Paris in 1834 and was surely known to Bayre, for the author was the former director of the zoo in the Jardin des Plantes and one of the "masters of genuine poetry" for the archromantic Mme de Staël. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre maintained that a carnivorous animal in devouring its prey alive committed a sin against the laws of its own nature."
edit
Cultural offices
Preceded by Seat 27
Académie française
1803–1814
Succeeded by