French sculptor of Italian origin (born Niccolò Bernardo Raggi). He studied in Florence with Lorenzo Bartolini and he won there a prize founded by Elisa Bonaparte, Grand Duchess of Tuscany. Before 1814 he moved to Marseille and started to work in trade, but finally he entered the workshop of François-Joseph Bosio. He was admitted to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1814. He first exhibited at the Salon of 1817 where he presented the Jeune discobole, pret a lancer son disque (Young Discus Thrower, Ready to Launch his Discus). He received a Gold Medal for his bronze monument to Henri IV, exhibited at the Salon of 1819. He became Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 1824. //