Phillipe Caresme was the son of Francoise-Aimée Coypel, the daughter of Noël Coypel and Claude-Françoise Caresme, an amateur draftsman who had been admitted in 1747 to the rank of Conseiller at the Academy because of the patronage of M. de Tournehem, Madame de Pompadour's uncle. Caresme was a student of Charles-Antoine Coypel. He entered the Academy on 27 September 1766 but was excluded in 1768 for not having painted his reception piece, a large painting for the Gallery of Apollo. He specialized in bacchanales, exhibiting several of them in the Salons. His drawings were engraved by Bonnet, Demarteau and Voyez L'ainé, among others