Olivier Bernier

Author and Historian

Olivier Bernier received his B.A. from Harvard University in 1962 and, two years later, attended the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, completing his work for a master’s degree in 1966.

After serving as director of exhibitions at the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York, he became a private art dealer in 1968.

In 1977, Mr. Bernier left that profession to become a historian. Since then, he has written “Pleasure and Privilege,” “Life in France,” “Naples and the United States, 1770-1790,” “Art and Craft,” “The Eighteenth-Century Woman,” “Lafayette, Hero of Two Worlds,” “Louis The Beloved,” “The Life of Louis XV,” “Secrets of Marie Antoinette” and “Louis XIV, A Royal Life.” His books have been published in Europe, the United States and Latin America.

Mr. Bernier’s work has also appeared in the New York Times Arts and Leisure Section, the New York Times Travel Section, “House and Garden” magazine, “Antiques, Art and Antiques” and other magazines.

In 1984, he was chosen as a Literary Lion by the New York Public Library. And Mr. Bernier has been giving two series of sold-out lectures a year at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York since 1982. His latest book is “The World in 1800.”