Editing Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (section)

== Career ==
=== Early sculptures and work in Colmar ===
[[File:Frederic Auguste Bartholdi seated portrait.jpg|thumb|Bartholdi early in his career]]
In 1853, Bartholdi submitted a [[Good Samaritan]]-themed sculptural group to the [[Paris salon|Paris Salon]] of 1853. The statue was later recreated in [[bronze]]. Within two years of his Salon debut, Bartholdi was commissioned by his hometown of Colmar to sculpt a bronze memorial of [[Jean Rapp]], a Napoleonic General.<ref name="Bartholdi_NGA"/> In 1855 and 1856, Bartholdi traveled in Yemen and Egypt with travel companions such as [[Jean-Léon Gérôme]] and other "orientalist" painters. The trip sparked Bartholdi's interest in colossal sculpture.<ref name="Bartholdi_NGA"/>

In 1869, Bartholdi returned to Egypt to propose a new lighthouse to be built at the entrance of the [[Suez Canal]], which was newly completed. The lighthouse, which was to be called ''[[Egypt Carrying the Light to Asia]]'' and shaped as a massive, draped figure holding a torch, was not commissioned.<ref name="Bartholdi_NGA"/> Both the khedive and [[Ferdinand de Lesseps|Lesseps]] declined the proposed statue from Bartholdi, citing the high cost.<ref>{{cite book|first=Zachary|last=Karabell|title=Parting the desert: the creation of the Suez Canal|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|date=2003|page=[https://archive.org/details/partingdesertcre00kara/page/243 243]|isbn=0-375-40883-5|url=https://archive.org/details/partingdesertcre00kara/page/243}}</ref> The [[Port Said Lighthouse]] was built instead, by François Coignet in 1869.

=== The war and Statue of Liberty ===
[[File:Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty.png|thumb|Bartholdi sculpting with a miniature of ''Liberty Enlightening the World'', now known as the [[Statue of Liberty]], to his left]]
Bartholdi served in the [[Franco-Prussian War]] of 1870 as a squadron leader of the National Guard, and as a [[liaison officer]] to Italian General [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]], representing the French government and the [[Army of the Vosges]].{{citation needed|date=August 2016}} As an officer, he took part in the defense of Colmar from Germany. Distraught over his region's defeat, over the following years he constructed a number of monuments celebrating French heroism in the defense against Germany. Among these projects was the ''[[Lion of Belfort]]'', which he started working on in 1871, not finishing the massive sandstone statue until 1880.<ref name="Bartholdi_NGA"/>

In 1871, he made his first trip to the United States, where he pitched the idea of a massive statue gifted from the French to the Americans in honor of the centennial of American independence. The idea, which had first been broached to him in 1865 by his friend [[Édouard René de Laboulaye]], resulted in the [[Statue of Liberty]] in [[New York Harbor]].<ref name="Bartholdi_NGA"/> After years of work and fundraising, the statue was inaugurated in 1886.<ref name="Bartholdi_NGA"/> During this period, Bartholdi also sculpted monuments for other American cities, such as the [[Bartholdi Fountain]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], completed in 1878.<ref name="Bartholdi_NGA"/>

=== Later years ===
In 1875, he joined the [[Freemasons]] Lodge Alsace-Lorraine in Paris.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LhHW_eX9KVkC&q=bartholdi+freemason&pg=PT23|title=The Statue of Liberty|last=Moreno|first=Barry|date=10 November 2004|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-1-4396-3220-8|language=en}}</ref><ref>Giuseppe Seganti, ''Massoni Famosi'', Rome, Atanòr, 2005, {{ISBN|88-7169-223-3}}.</ref> In 1876, Bartholdi was one of the French commissioners in 1876 to the [[Centennial Exposition|Philadelphia Centennial Exposition]]. There he exhibited bronze statues of ''The Young Vine-Grower'', ''Génie Funèbre'', ''Peace'' and ''Genius in the Grasp of Misery'', receiving a bronze medal for the latter.<ref name="Apletons_1900" /> His 1878 statue ''Gribeauval'' became the property of the French state.<ref name="Apletons_1900" />

A prolific creator of statues, monuments, and portraits, Bartholdi exhibited at the Paris Salons until the year of his death in 1904.<ref name="Bartholdi_NGA" /> He also remained active with diverse mediums, including oil painting, watercolor, photography, and drawing,<ref name="Bartholdi_NGA" /> and received the rank of Commander of the [[French Legion of Honor|Legion of Honor]] in 1886. Bartholdi died of [[tuberculosis]] at age 70 in Paris on 4 October 1904. <ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archives.paris.fr/arkotheque/visionneuse/visionneuse.php?arko=YTo2OntzOjQ6ImRhdGUiO3M6MTA6IjIwMjAtMDgtMjAiO3M6MTA6InR5cGVfZm9uZHMiO3M6MTE6ImFya29fc2VyaWVsIjtzOjQ6InJlZjEiO2k6NDtzOjQ6InJlZjIiO2k6MzAwOTkyO3M6MTY6InZpc2lvbm5ldXNlX2h0bWwiO2I6MTtzOjIxOiJ2aXNpb25uZXVzZV9odG1sX21vZGUiO3M6NDoicHJvZCI7fQ==#uielem_move=-107%2C-1225&uielem_rotate=F&uielem_islocked=0&uielem_zoom=175 |title=1904, Décès, 06 |publisher=Archives de Paris |access-date=14 November 2020 |language=fr |pages=30–31}}</ref>