He soon returned, however, to his native village, and followed for some time the profession of an advocate; but in 1787 he succeeded his uncle Antoine David as printer to the parlement.

[1] He was elected mayor of Aix in 1791, but as the French Revolution worsened for public officials, he moved to Paris and then briefly into hiding during the Reign of Terror.

When danger was past he returned to Aix, sold his printing business, and engaged in general commercial pursuits; but he was not long in renouncing these also in order to devote himself exclusively to literature and art.

From 1809 to 1814, under the Empire, he represented his département in the Lower House (Corps législatif); in 1814 he voted for the downfall of Napoleon; in 1815 he retired into private life, and in 1816 he was elected a member of the Institute (Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres).

His principal works are Recherches sur l'art statuaire, considéré chez les anciens et les modernes (Paris, 1805), a work which obtained the prize of the institute; Choix de pièces: notices sur divers tableaux du Musée Napoléon (Paris, 1812); Suite d'études calquées et dessinées d'après cinq tableaux de Raphaël (Paris, 1818–1821), in 6 vols.