Caron's name first appears between 1540 and 1550 in the royal account books for Fontainebleau, after he had already shown his talent for decoration and interest in the applied arts with designs for stained glass in Beauvais. Beginning in 1559, he was given increasing responsibility within Primaticcio's team of artists and was involved in the restoration of the Galerie François I and subsequently, with Niccolò dell'Abbate, in the painting of various apartments.
Although Caron repeatedly worked for the court, especially as a designer of festival decor, and held corresponding offices, he worked relatively independently and to growing acclaim beginning in the 1560s. He maintained contacts with Parisian scholars and men of letters, under whose influence in his so-called 'docte peinture' he dealt with the events of his time, shaken by the religious wars, in an allegorical and historicising manner. Of particular importance to him was his acquaintanceship with the apothecary and humanist Nicolas Houel, whose 1562 manuscript 'L'Histoire d'Artemise', dedicated to Catherine de' Medici, he illustrated with drawings, just as he did the 'Histoire francoyse de nostre temps' which followed. The drawings from the first work were later used as cartoons for tapestries.
Caron spent his last years in the Rue Montorgueil, Paris's engravers' and woodcarvers' quarter. For these he designed the story of Esther and illustrated scenes from Philostratus which were only published posthumously.
