A comparable drawing by Desmarais is in the Louvre, R. Michel Acquisitions 1984-1989, exhib. cat., Louvre, Paris, 1990, no. 168, illustrated.
Desmarais was a student of Gabriel François Doyen and won the Prix de Rome in 1785. He went to live in Rome, and thereafter in Florence. In 1807 he moved to Carrara where he died.