Jean Clair is the nom de plume (pen name) of Gérard Régnier (born October 20, 1940 in Paris, France). He is an essayist, a polemicist, an art historian, an art conservator, and a member of the French Academy since May, 2008. He was, for many years, the director of the Picasso Museum in Paris. Among the milestones of his long and productive career is a comprehensive catalog of the works of Balthus. He was also the director of the Venice Biennale in 1995.
The son of farmers, Jean Clair was born in the sixth arrondissement of Paris. He was a student at two secondary schools, the lycée Jacques-Decour and the lycée Carnot, before embarking on a course of post-baccalaureat preparation, the so-called khâgne, at the prestigious lycée Henri-IV in Paris. Then he pursued a degree at the Sorbonne, where he was a student of the art historian, André Chastel, and the philosopher, Jean Grenier. Later, he secured a doctorate in art at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University. He was, for a time, involved with the Union of Communist Students.