Jean Veber was born in Paris in 1864. Trained as a painter, he became a cartoonist when his brother, Pierre Veber, asked him to join his journal, Gil Blas. Veber's nationalistic drawings soon made him one of France's most popular political cartoonists.

In 1897 his cartoon showing Otto von Bismarck as a butcher of his people, caused an official outcry. This was followed four years later by an attack on Edward VII, whose face was imposed on the face of the posterior of a leering Britannia.

Jean Veber died in 1928.