Frédéric Bartholdi
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Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (August 2, 1834 – October 4, 1904) was a French sculptor. He is also known as Amilcar Hasenfratz.
Born in Colmar, Alsace, he studied architecture in Colmar and then went to Paris to further his studies in architecture as well as painting. Bartholdi would go on to become one of the most celebrated of the 19th century sculptors, famous both in Europe and in North America.
The work for which he is most famous is the Statue of Liberty, donated in 1886 by the Union Franco-Americaine (Franco-American Union), founded by Edouard de Laboulaye, to the United States. It was rumored all over France that the face of the Statue of Liberty was modeled after Bartholdi’s mother; and the body after his mistress.[1] Before starting his commission, Bartholdi traveled to the United States to personally select New York Harbor as the site for the statue.
While in a visit to Egypt that was to shift his artistic perspective from simply grand to colossal, Bartholdi was inspired by the project of Suez Canal which was being undertaken by Ferdinand, Vicomte de Lesseps who later became his life-long friend. He envisioned a giant lighthouse standing at the entrance to Suez Canal and drew plans for it. It would be patterned after the Roman goddess Libertas, modified to resemble a robed Egyptian peasant, a fallaha, with light beaming out from both a headband and a torch thrust dramatically upward into the skies. Bartholdi presented his plans to the Egyptian Khediev, Isma'il Pasha, in 1867 and, with revisions, again in 1869, but the project was never commissioned.[2]
In 1879, Bartholdi was awarded design patent U.S. Patent D11,023 for the Statue of Liberty. This patent covered the sale of small copies of the statue. Proceeds from the sale of the statues helped raise money to build the full statue.
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[edit] Other major works
His European work, The Lion of Belfort, at Belfort, France, is one of his most popular and well known. A massive sculpture of a lion, it is carved into the side of a mountain, depicting the huge struggle of the French to hold off the Prussian assault until the end of the Franco-Prussian War.
Bartholdi’s other major works includes a variety of statues including at his hometown Colmar, at Clermont-Ferrand, and in Paris. Some of these notable works are:
- Switzerland Succoring Strasbourg, at Basel, Switzerland;
- The statue was a gift from the city of Strasbourg, France, in appreciation of the help it received during the Franco-Prussian War.
- The Bartholdi Fountain in Bartholdi Park, the United States Botanic Garden, Washington, DC, United States;
- The Marquis de Lafayette Statue, in Union Square, New York City, United States;
- The four angelic trumpeters on the corners of the First Baptist Church tower, Boston, Massachusetts, United States;
- the Lafayette and Washington Monument, at Morningside Park, New York City, United States.
- Fontaine Bartholdi, on the Place des Terreaux, in Lyon, France.
Frédéric Bartholdi died of tuberculosis in Paris on October 4, 1904 and is buried in that city's Cimetière du Montparnasse.
[edit] Further reading
- Belot, Robert; Daniel Bermond (2004). Bartholdi.
- Gschaedler, Andre (1966). True Light on the Statue of Liberty and Her Creator.
- Moreno, Barry (2000). The Statue of Liberty Encyclopedia. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684862271.
- Pauli, Hertha (1969). I Lift My Lamp: The Way of a Symbol. Associated Faculty Pr Inc. ISBN 0804680655.
