Chennevières was a learned connoisseur and collected thousands of French drawings from 1500 to 1860. His friends included Charles Baudelaire, Theophile Gautier and the Goncourt brothers. He served in the arts administration of the Second Empire (1851-1870). He joined the Louvre in 1846, and later became its curator from 1852 to 1870, and was responsible for the Fine Arts exhibition at the 1855 Paris World's Fair. In 1873, Chennevières became the Director of the national École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts).