1801–1854
Armand Bertin was the director of the Journal des Débats during its most influential period, from 1834 until his death in 1854. Son of Louis-François Bertin (Bertin l'aîné, 1766–1841), who had rescued the paper during the Consulate, Armand brought it to the height of its cultural prestige.
Under Armand Bertin's direction the Débats published: feuilletons by Jules Janin, music criticism by Hector Berlioz, art criticism by Étienne-Jean Delécluze, and — crucially — the complete serialization of Alexandre Dumas's Le Comte de Monte-Cristo from 28 August 1844 to 15 January 1846.
Bertin was also a notable collector and patron. He is sometimes confused with his father, whose celebrated 1832 Ingres portrait hangs in the Louvre; a portrait of Armand himself survives in an 1842 Ingres graphite drawing, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Director and music critic
Bertin directed the paper 1841-1854, the period during which Berlioz was its regular music critic (1834-1863).
Director and star critic
Bertin, as director, published Janin's celebrated Monday feuilletons for over three decades.