Trained as an architect, Desprez won the Prix de Rome for architecture in 1776 and from 1777 to 1784 lived in Italy, where he found employment as an illustrator. In 1784 he left for Stockholm to become theater designer to King Gustav III. Today Desprez is best known for his skills as a draftsman. He also made a small number of etchings after his own designs, of which La Chimère is both the most accomplished and the most bizarre.

The subject is described in a lengthy inscription that appears on the fifth state of the print. Desprez's mythical beast, born on the burning sands of Africa, has three heads: one of a bird and two with features of the devil. The skeletal monster, framed by the dark semicircle of an archway with the pale semicircle of the moon visible beyond, devours its human prey amidst the bones of its previous victims. Seen against the venerable tradition of demonic creatures in Western art, Desprez's macabre vision is a tour de force of his inventive skills and graphic technique.