In 1824, Sappey worked in Rogge's[clarification needed] workshop in Paris before living in Egypt for two years with his friend Jean Achard and a group of St. Simonians.

This can be seen in the statue "Génie des Alpes" in Uriage-les-Bains; though the original was destroyed, a model is kept at Musée dauphinois.

Sappey was professor and later director at the École des Beaux-Arts de Grenoble.

[1] Sappey was a friend of Théodore Ravanat and Henri Fantin-Latour, and was close to all members of the École dauphinoise that he attended in Proveysieux.

He was also the father-in-law of the Grenoble sculptor Aimé Charles Irvoy (1824–1898), who had once been his student.