Jean-François le Jeune, so called to distinguish him from Champollion Figeac, his elder brother, was born at Figeac, department Du Lot, in 1796. He was educated at Grenoble, and afterwards at Paris, where under Langlès and De Lacy he devoted himself to the study of Coptic. In 1811 he was made professor of history in the Lyceum of Grenoble, and there published his earlier works. He was sent by Charles X. in 1824, to visit the collections of Egyptian antiquities in the museums of Turin, Leghorn, Rome, and Naples; and on his return was appointed director of the Egyptian museum at the Louvre. In 1828 he was commissioned to undertake the conduct of a scientific expedition to Egypt, and accompanied Rosellini, who had received a similar appointment from Leopold II. Grand Duke of Tuscany. He remained there about a year; and soon after his return was appointed professor of Egyptian Antiquities in the Royal College at Paris. He was engaged along with Rosellini in publishing the results of his Egyptian researches at the expense of the Tuscan and French governments, when he was seized with a paralytic disorder, and died at Paris in 1831. For an account and estimate of his discoveries, see Hieroglyphics and Egypt.

He wrote L'Egypte sous les Pharaons, 2 vols. 8vo, 1814; De l'Ecriture Hiéroglyphique des Anciens Égyptiens, 1821; Précis du Système Hiéroglyphique, &c., 1824; Panthéon Égyptien, ou Collection des Personnages Mythologiques de l'Antique Égypte, incompleted; Monuments de l'Égypte et de la Nubie considérés par rapport à l'Histoire, la Religion, &c.; Grammaire Égyptienne, 1836, edited by his brother; and also several letters on Egyptian subjects, written at different periods to his patrons.