Édouard Henri Théophile Pingret was born in Saint-Quentin, in Picardy, northern France. His father, Henri Pingret Jullien, practised law and was related to Protestant aristocracy. Pingret studied in Paris under the painters Jacques-Louis David and Jean-Baptiste Regnault, and also in Rome at the Academy of Saint Luke. From 1810 he exhibited his work at the Paris salons. He was appointed Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1831. From 1850 to 1855, he lived and worked in Mexico, where he exhibited at the Academia de Bellas Artes. He painted portraits of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (1808) and General Mariano Arista (1851; Mexico City, Museum of Natural History).