Vernansal, a pupil of Charles Lebrun, became an academician on 27 September 1687 and exhibited at the Salon from 1699 to 1704. He visited Italy and went to Padua and Rome. He had married Marie Madeleine Chaliot or Challiot, who bore him a son, Jacques François Vernansal, and he lived in the cloisters of St-Germain l'Auxerrois.