Ventenat took a trip to England while he was employed as director of the ecclesiastic library Sainte-Geneviève in Paris. While in England, he visited the country's botanical gardens. This inspired him to pursue a career in science. Later he studied under and worked with a botanist named Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle (1746–1800). In 1795, he was elected a member of the "Institut national des sciences et des arts". They later changed their name to be the "Académie des sciences". 