Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi

Frédéric - Auguste Bartholdi ( born August 2, 1834 in Colmar, † October 4, 1904 in Paris ), the son of a lawyer, was a French sculptor. His family, originally from northern Italy, wandered over the Thurgau and southern Germany to Alsace.

Bartholdi's most famous work is the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Iceland, New Jersey, originally yet Bartholdi statue said. A Statue of Liberty can be found, but on a smaller scale, also still in Paris, Las Vegas and in Colmar, his hometown. Bartholdi is also the creator of the Lion of Belfort, a 11 meter high and 22 meter long stone sculpture and landmark of the town of Belfort.

Life

Bartholdi was a member of a noble and wealthy family. For this reason, he renounced later in his life mostly on fees. He was sort of " sculptors from passion." Bartholdi's family moved to his father's death in 1836 to Paris, where he received instruction in drawing and painting from the then-known artist Ary Scheffer. He attended the École nationale supérieure des beaux -arts de Paris.

Early on, he discovered his love for sculpture, and at the age of 17, he created the Good Samaritan, which was shown at the annual Paris art exhibition. His first great monument was a seven meter high statue ( incl. base ) of the Napoleonic General Jean Rapp. The final breakthrough that made ​​him a wealthy man, Bartholdi in 1857 succeeded by winning a tender for a gigantic fountain in Bordeaux.

During his visit to Egypt, Bartholdi sent on June 2, 1856 100 paper negatives and about 200 drawings home, which were only rediscovered around 1990 and were due to their unusual quality and vision for small sensation, but he was after this trip, photography, and devoted himself henceforth the monumental sculpture. The inspiration for his idea of a sculpture modeled after the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the seven wonders of the world, Bartholdi was on this same trip. From then on he was obsessed with the idea to have a huge lighthouse in the form of a 28 meter high, torch-bearing Egyptian perched above the northern entrance of the Suez Canal. Bartholdi had even a title for his work: Progress or Egypt carrying the light to Asia, but smote all his efforts fail to win the viceroy of Egypt, Ismail Pasha for the project.

In 1874 he was initiated into the Masonic Lodge Alsace - Lorraine in Paris.

Though Bartholdi was pulled away at the age of two years with his mother from Colmar, most of his works are there.

Works

Statue of Liberty

For Bartholdi plans should it prove to be a fortunate coincidence that the Republican politician Édouard René Lefebvre de Laboulaye (* 1811 in Paris, † 1883 in Paris ), had set itself, the author of a three-volume history of the U.S. in the head, for the centenary of the American Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1876, to erect a grand memorial. The members of which he founded Union Franco - Americaine envisioned a colossal statue, which should surpass anything previously seen before. Prominent member of the Union was among other things Henri Martin.

From then on it was Bartholdi's obsession to build the statue, and he could not be dissuaded from the war that France Prussia declared on 19 July 1870 and other obstacles (eg, lack of money ) from his goal. From 1875 he designed and built a different between and eleven meter high clay and plaster models of the American Statue of Liberty. The brilliant engineer Maurice Koechlin developed in 1879 an elaborate support system for the monument which alone weighs 127 tons.

In the summer of 1884, finally, the final assembly of the existing 300 driven from copper plates statue was held in Paris, before finally disassembled and packed in 200 crates on board the steamer Isere, as a gift of the French people, to their final destination Liberty Iceland was brought. On October 28, 1886, the inauguration ceremony of the Statue of Liberty took place.

Other Works (selection)

• More works in Colmar: The tomb of the fallen 1870 National Guardsmen Voulminot, Wagner and Linck (1872 ), cemetery Ladhof;
• Four allegorical statues: orfèvrerie. Étude, Gravure and Peinture, Colmar, Musée Bartholdi

Prix ​​Bartholdi

Since 2001, named after the sculptor Bartholdi Prix is awarded in the Upper Rhine region.

Gallery

Statue of Martin Schongauer

Vercingetorix Memorial in Clermont- Ferrand

Strasbourg Monument, Basel

Schwendihotel Fountain, Colmar

The Lion of Belfort

The Bartholdi Fountain, Lyons

Bartholdi Fountain Washington, D.C.