Etienne Jeaurat shared lodgings with his master Vleughels and with Watteau in 1718. When his master was sent to Rome as the director of the Académie de France, he followed him. On his return Jeaurat was received at the Academy in Paris as history painter with Pyramus and Thisbe. He exhibited at the Salon in 1737 and after a sequence of promotions was elected chancelier in 1781. In 1767 he was appointed Garde des tableaux du Roi in Versailles.