
Joseph Bettannier was a French illustrator and lithographer.
Joseph Bettannier came from the French city of Metz and met the Swiss geologist and paleontologist Louis Agassiz, who was working in Paris at the time. He accompanied him on research trips to the Alps and, on his behalf, produced drawings of glacier landscapes in the cantons of Valais and Bern, which were published as lithographs in Agassiz's glaciological work Études sur Les Glaciers. This volume, which was important for the development of the ice age theory, made Joseph Bettannier's illustrations widely known.
After returning to France, Joseph Bettannier founded the Bettannier frères art lithography studio together with his brother Édouard Bettannier. The business produced art prints for various publishers. These included portraits of people, such as an image of Napoleon III, and cityscapes. Around 1870, Bettannier lived in Boulogne-Billancourt. He continued his business as a lithographer until the late 1870s. He died in 1882 in the commune of Les Lilas, a suburb of Paris.