Born in Montpellier, Fabre was a pupil of Jacques-Louis David, and made his name by winning the Prix de Rome in 1787.

[1] During the French Revolution, Fabre went to live in Florence, becoming a member of the Florentine Academy, where he taught painting.

The friends he made in Italy included the dramatist, Vittorio Alfieri, whose widow, Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern, Countess of Albany, he is said to have married.

[2] Fabre began his training in Montpellier's art academy, where he spent several years prior to joining Jacques-Louis David's studio in Paris.

[3] Fabre's works include The Dying Saint Sebastian (1789), The Judgment of Paris (1808), and The Death of Narcissus (1814).