In 1823, at the urging of his uncle, the painter Pierre-Joseph Dedreux-Dorcy, he began studying art with Géricault who was a family friend and a lover of horses.

[5] The following year, an equestrian portrait of the Duc d'Orléans became his entry to a position in the workshops of Eugène Isabey.

Following the revolution of 1848, the French royal family emigrated to England, where Dreux became a frequent visitor.

[8] He returned to Paris in 1852 and opened a studio where he created more equestrian portraits, this time of Emperor Napoléon III and his family, but still made frequent trips to England.

In 1951, it was repeated in a memoir by Dreux's grandnephew, the writer André de Fouquières [fr].