Corvisart studied medicine in Paris under the influence of Pierre-Joseph Desault, Vicq d'Azyr, and others. In 1782, he was awarded the title docteur-regént. He worked as chief physician of the Hospice de la Charité in 1788. In 1795, he held a chair for internal medicine at the Ecole de Santé in Paris. He translated Auenbrugger’s work about percussion into French in 1808.