French family of sculptors. Claude Ramey (b Dijon, 29 Oct 1754; d Paris, 4 June 1838) first studied at the Ecole de Dessin in Dijon, under François Devosges III. In 1780 he moved to Paris, where he studied under Etienne-Pierre-Adrien Gois. In 1782 he was awarded the Prix de Rome for sculpture, jointly with Pierre-Joseph Chardigny (1794–1866). From 1782 to 1786 he was a student at the Académie de France in Rome; returning to Paris, he exhibited at the Salons from 1793 to 1827. He produced numerous portrait busts and statues, such as the marble statue of Eugène de Beauharnais (exh. 1810 Salon; Versailles, Château). He also used Classical subjects, as in his marble statue of Sappho (1801; Paris, Louvre). Among his public commissions was the marble low relief of the View of Austerlitz for the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, Paris, as well as sculpted decorations for the Louvre, the Palais du Luxembourg and other public buildings. Ramey’s son, Etienne(-Jules) Ramey (b Paris, 23 May 1796; d Paris, 29 Oct 1852), trained with his father, before entering the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1815 he won the Prix de Rome for sculpture and spent the next five years in Rome, where he made copies of Classical works, such as the marble Venus Anadyomene (1820; Dijon, Mus. B.-A.). On his return to Paris, he made his début at the Salon in 1822 and exhibited there in 1824 and 1827, when he showed his most celebrated group, Theseus and the Minotaur (Paris, Louvre). He received numerous public commissions for churches and state buildings, both in Paris and the provinces; among them was a plaster Christ at the Column (1822) for the Eglise de la Sorbonne, Paris. The marble low relief of the Chamber of Deputies Offering the Crown to Louis-Philippe (untraced) was commissioned in 1833 and installed in the Chambre des Députés in 1842. Ramey also produced occasional portrait works, such as the marble medallion of Mme Dumont, wife of Jacques-Edme Dumont (1829; Paris, Louvre).