Early Life, Family and Training Born in Quebec City, Canada, on August 27, 1922, Jean Benoît would eventually earn the moniker "The Enchanter of Serpents" for the surrealist sculptures that defined his career. His early years in Quebec provided the foundation for a life spent navigating the intersections of the biological and the strange. He sought formal instruction at the École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, an institution that would s…