Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Raggi, Mario
RAGGI, MARIO (1821–1907), sculptor, born at Carrara, Italy, in 1821, studied art at the Royal Academy, Carrara, winning all available prizes at the age of seventeen. He then went to Rome, where he studied under Temerani. In 1850 he came to London, working at first under Monti, afterwards for many years under Matthew Noble [q. v.], and finally setting up his own studio about 1875. His principal works were memorial busts and statues. He executed the national memorial to Beaconsfield in Parliament Square, a Jubilee memorial of Queen Victoria for Hong Kong, with replicas for Kimberley and Toronto, and statues of Lord Swansea for Swansea, Dr. Tait for Edinburgh, Dr. Crowther for Hobart Town, Sir Arthur Kennedy for Hong Kong, and Gladstone for Manchester.
His first exhibit in the Royal Academy was a work entitled 'Innocence' in 1854. No further work was shown at the Academy till 1878, when he exhibited a marble bust of Admiral Rous, which he executed for the Jockey club, Newmarket. He afterwards exhibited intermittently till 1895, among other works being busts of Cardinal Manning (1879), Cardinal Newman (1881), Lord John Manners, afterwards seventh Duke of Rutland (1884), and the duchess of Rutland (1895). Raggi died at the Mount, Roundstone, Farnham, Surrey, on 26 Nov. 1907.
[The Times, 29 Nov. 1907; Graves's Roy. Acad. Exhibitors, 1906.]