 On his return to France and his former master, he worked on the sculpture for the mausoleum of Louis, "le Grand Dauphin" in the cathedral of Sens.After a failed try in 1776, with his "Ganymede", he was received by the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1778, with a "Dying Gladiator" for his "morceau de réception" He was named one of the original members of the Institut de France, 1795, and a chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur, 1804.He received commissions from the comte d'Angiviller, director of the Bâtiments du Roi, on behalf of Louis XVI for figures in a suite of life-size portraits of the great men of France