Jean Batenburg (1906-1990) was a Belgian figurative artist who, alongside his work as a painter, etcher, and watercolorist, also made significant contributions to the field of furniture design. After studying interior architecture at the academies in Brussels and Schaarbeek, he began applying his architectural expertise to create functional, modern furniture pieces. In the 1960s, he and his wife ran a design business in Kortenberg, initially called E.M.Y., which later became MI.

Their business focused on producing high-quality, modernist furniture, and Batenburg's designs blended both artistic and architectural principles. Throughout his career, Batenburg's work in furniture design merged artistic sensibility with functionality, contributing to the development of Belgian modernism.