He was born in Paris and influenced by Cochin and Moreau le Jeune.
Enthusiastic about the new ideas of the day, he produced more than sixty drawings or "tableaux historiques" (historical scenes) showing episodes from the French Revolution, now held at the Musée Carnavalet.
[1] Prieur was arrested after the Insurrection of 12 Germinal, Year III, tried alongside Fouquier-Tinville and guillotined in place de Grève on 7 May 1795, only a day after his father's death.
He later served as the model for the character of Gamelin in Anatole France's 1912 novel Les dieux ont soif.
[2] A room in the Musée de la Révolution française bears the name of Jean-Louis Prieur.