He first studied theology before renouncing this to become "avocat général" to the parliament of Metz.
Before having spent ten years in that role, he had a reverse in his fortunes and returned to Paris.
Suffering from gout and pensioned off by Louis XIV, he set up a salon to which high society flocked.
"She found in him conversation that was fine and witty, clever and polite, instructive without being pedantic".
Étienne Pavillon was an author of "vers de circonstance", in stanzas and madrigals, and of letters in verse or prose in the Voiture genre, gathered together for the first time in a posthumously-published volume, reissued several times between 1715 and 1750.