Editing Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi

{{Short description|French sculptor and painter (1834–1904)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox artist
| honorific_prefix = 
| name             = Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi
| honorific_suffix = 
| image            = Bartholdi, Auguste, Nadar, GALLICA.jpg
| image_size       = 
| alt              = 
| caption          = Portrait by [[Nadar]], {{circa|1875}}
| native_name      = 
| native_name_lang = 
| birth_name       = <!-- only use if different than name -->
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1834|08|02|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Colmar]], France
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1904|10|04|1834|08|02|df=y}}
| death_place      = [[Paris]], France
| resting_place    = [[Montparnasse Cemetery]]|resting_place_coordinates {{Coord|48.8372916|2.3302248|type:landmark|display=inline}}
| education        = [[Lycee Louis-le-Grand]]
| alma_mater       = [[École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts]]
| known_for        = 
| notable_works    = [[Statue of Liberty]]
| style            = 
| movement         = 
| spouse           = {{marriage|Jeanne-Emile Baheux|1876}}
| awards           = <!-- {{awd|award|year|title|role|name}} (optional) -->
| elected          = 
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| website          = <!-- {{URL|Example.com}} -->
| module           = 
| signature        = Auguste Bartholdi (signature 1884).png
}}
'''Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi''' ({{IPAc-en|b|ɑːr|ˈ|t|ɒ|l|d|i|,_|-|ˈ|θ|ɒ|l|-}} {{respell|bar|T(H)OL|dee}},<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/bartholdi|title=Bartholdi|work=[[Collins English Dictionary]]|publisher=[[HarperCollins]]|access-date=26 August 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite dictionary |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/Bartholdi,+Auguste |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200925034514/https://www.lexico.com/definition/bartholdi,_auguste |url-status=dead |archive-date=25 September 2020 |title=Bartholdi, Auguste |dictionary=[[Lexico]] UK English Dictionary |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref> {{IPA|fr|fʁedeʁik oɡyst baʁtɔldi|lang}}; 2 August 1834 – 4 October 1904) was a French [[sculpture|sculptor]] and [[painting|painter]]. He is best known for designing ''Liberty Enlightening the World'', commonly known as the [[Statue of Liberty]].<ref name="Apletons_1900">{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Bartholdi, Frederic Auguste|year=1900}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
[[File:Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi.jpg|thumb|Bartholdi in 1886 (painting by [[Jean Benner]])]]
Bartholdi was born in [[Colmar]], France, on 2 August 1834.<ref>{{cite web |title=Biographie |url=https://www.musee-bartholdi.fr/biographie |website=musee-bartholdi.fr |publisher=Musée Bartholdi, Colmar |access-date=23 November 2023}}</ref> He was born to a family of [[Alsace|Alsatian]] [[Protestant]] heritage, with his family name adopted from Barthold.<ref name="Bartholdi_NGA">{{cite web | url =http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/artist-info.6761.html | title =Bartholdi, Frédéric-Auguste  | website =www.nga.gov | publisher =[[National Gallery of Art]] | access-date = 5 August 2016}}</ref> His parents were Jean Charles Bartholdi (1791–1836) and Augusta Charlotte Bartholdi ({{nee|Beysser}}; 1801–1891). Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi was the youngest of their four children, and one of only two to survive infancy, along with the oldest brother, Jean-Charles, who became a lawyer and editor.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}

Bartholdi's father, a property owner and counselor to the prefecture, died when Bartholdi was two years old.<ref name="Bartholdi_NGA" /> Afterwards, Bartholdi moved with his mother and his older brother Jean-Charles to [[Paris]], where another branch of their family resided.<ref name="Bartholdi_NGA" /> With the family often returning to spend long periods of time in Colmar,<ref name="Bartholdi_NGA" /> the family maintained ownership and visited their house in Alsace, which later became the Bartholdi Museum in 1922.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Schenk|first=Peter|title=Mein Leben im Dreiland: Die Freiheitsstatue steht in Colmar {{!}} bz Basel|url=https://www.bzbasel.ch/basel/basel-stadt/die-freiheitsstatue-steht-in-colmar-ld.1545637|access-date=15 February 2021|website=bz - Zeitung für die Region Basel|date=30 March 2016 |language=de}}</ref> While in Colmar, Bartholdi took drawing lessons from Martin Rossbach. In Paris, he studied sculpture with [[Antoine Étex]]. He also studied architecture under [[Henri Labrouste]] and [[Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc]].<ref name="Bartholdi_NGA"/>

Bartholdi attended the [[Lycée Louis-le-Grand]] in Paris and received a [[baccalauréat]] in 1852. He then went on to study architecture at the [[École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts]]{{citation needed|date=August 2016}} as well as painting under [[Ary Scheffer]]<ref name="Apletons_1900"/><ref name="Bartholdi_NGA"/> in his studio in the Rue Chaptal, now the [[Musée de la Vie Romantique]].{{citation needed|date=August 2016}} Later, Bartholdi turned his attention to sculpture, which afterward exclusively occupied him and his life.<ref name="Apletons_1900"/>

== 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>

==Personal life==
In 1876, he married Jeanne-Emile Baheux in [[Providence, Rhode Island]].<ref name="Bartholdi_NGA"/> In 1893, Bartholdi and his wife visited the 1893 [[World's Columbian Exposition]] in Chicago, where his ''Washington and Lafayette'' sculptural group was exhibited.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=5 July 2021 |title=Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi's Visit to the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Part 1 |url=https://worldsfairchicago1893.com/2021/07/05/frederic-auguste-bartholdis-visit-to-the-1893-columbian-exposition-in-chicago-part-1/ |access-date=12 September 2022 |website=Chicagos 1893 Worlds Fair |language=en-US}}</ref> Throughout his life Bartholdi maintained his childhood family home in Colmar; in 1922, it was made into the [[Musée Bartholdi]].<ref name="Bartholdi_NGA"/>

==Major projects==
===The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World'')===
{{main|Statue of Liberty}}
[[File:Leslie Liberty.jpg|thumb|Front page of [[Frank Leslie]]'s 13 June 1885 edition of ''Illustrated Newspaper'']]
The work for which Bartholdi is most famous is ''Liberty Enlightening the World'', better known as the [[Statue of Liberty]]. Soon after the establishment of the [[French Third Republic]], the project of building some suitable memorial to show the fraternal feeling existing between the republics of the United States and France was suggested, and in 1874 the Union Franco-Américaine (Franco-American Union) was established by [[Edouard de Laboulaye]].<ref name="Apletons_1900"/>

Bartholdi's hometown in [[Alsace]] had just passed into German control in the [[Franco-Prussian War]]. These troubles in his ancestral home of Alsace are purported to have further influenced Bartholdi's own great interest in independence, liberty, and [[self-determination]].{{citation needed|date=August 2016}} Bartholdi subsequently joined the Union Franco-Américaine, among whose members were Laboulaye, [[Paul de Rémusat]], [[William Waddington]], [[Henri Martin (historian)|Henri Martin]], [[Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps]], [[Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau]], Oscar Gilbert Lafayette,<ref name="Apletons_1900"/> François Charles Lorraine, and Louis François Lorraine.{{clarify|date=August 2016}}
{{multiple image
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| image1 = Frederic Auguste Bartholdi crop.jpg
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| caption1 = Bartholdi in 1880
| image2 = Statue of Liberty - USA crop.jpg
| width2 = 195
| caption2 = The [[Statue of Liberty]]
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Bartholdi broached the idea of a massive statue, and once its design was approved, the Union Franco-Américaine raised more than 1 million francs throughout France for its building.<ref name="Apletons_1900"/> In 1879, Bartholdi was awarded [[design patent]] {{US patent|D11,023}} for the Statue of Liberty.{{clarify|date=August 2016}} On 4 July 1880, the statue was formally delivered to the American minister in Paris, the event being celebrated by a great banquet.<ref name="Apletons_1900"/> In {{format date|1886|10}}, the structure was officially presented as the joint gift of the French and American people, and installed on [[Bedloe's Island]] in [[New York Harbor]].<ref name="Apletons_1900"/> Originally, it arrived with chains presented in the left hand leading down to the feet, which was to represent the liberty of the United States from slavery. It was also originally the colour of copper to represent as such. The United States made a deal with Bartholdi that if the chains were to be removed from the upper part of the body, they could stay at the feet, but they, too, must be hidden. It was also rumoured in France that the face of the Statue of Liberty was modeled after Bartholdi's mother.<ref name="NPS_StatueLiberty_questions">[http://www.nps.gov/stli/planyourvisit/get-the-facts.htm "Frequently Asked Questions About the Statue of Liberty"] on the [[United States National Park Service]]'s Statue of Liberty website</ref> The statue is {{convert|46|m}},<ref>{{cite web |last1=Scoboria |first1=Evan |title=Guide to the Statue of Liberty's Dimensions (Height, Weight, and More) |url=https://www.skny.io/statue-of-liberty/how-tall-is-the-statue-of-liberty |website=SKNY |date=6 May 2023 |access-date=23 November 2023}}</ref> and the top of the torch is at an elevation of {{convert|93|m}} from mean low-water mark.<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/stli/faqs.htm "Statue of Liberty: Frequently Asked Questions"], [[National Park Service]] website</ref> It was the largest work of its kind that had been completed up to that time.<ref name="Apletons_1900"/>

===Works in Colmar===
[[File:Bartoldi-Museum.JPG|thumb|237px|[[Musée Bartholdi]] in Colmar]] 
Bartholdi's hometown [[Colmar]] (modern political administrative region of [[Grand Est]]) has a number of statues and monuments by the sculptor, as well as a museum founded in 1922 in the house in which he was born, at 30 Rue des Marchands.

* ''Monument du Général Rapp'' – 1856 (first shown 1855 in Paris. Bartholdi's earliest major work)
* "Fontaine Schongauer" – 1863 (in front of the [[Unterlinden Museum]])
* "Fontaine de l'Amiral Bruat" – 1864
* "Fontaine Roeselmann" – 1888
* "Monument Hirn" – 1894
* "Fontaine Schwendi", depicting [[Lazarus von Schwendi]] – 1898
* ''Les grands soutiens du monde'' − 1902 (statue in the courtyard of the museum)

===Other major works===
[[File:Bartholdi Fountain - Washington, D.C. crop.jpg|thumb|237px|Bartholdi Fountain in Washington, D.C.]]
Bartholdi's other major works include a variety of statues at [[Clermont-Ferrand]]; in Paris, and in other places. Notable works include:

* 1852: ''Francesca da Rimini''<ref name="Apletons_1900"/>
* 1870: ''Le Vigneron''<ref name="Apletons_1900"/>
* 1876 (plaster version in 1874) : Frieze and four angelic trumpeters on the tower of [[Brattle Square Church]], [[Boston]], Massachusetts, United States.
* 1876: ''[[Marquis de Lafayette (Bartholdi)|Marquis de Lafayette]]'' (or ''Lafayette Arriving in America''),<ref name="Apletons_1900"/> executed 1872, cast 1873<ref name="UnionPark_Highlights">[http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/unionsquarepark/highlights/13320 "Union Square Highlights"] on the [[New York City Parks Department]] website</ref> in [[Union Square (New York City)|Union Square]], New York City, United States.
* 1878: The [[Bartholdi Fountain]] in Bartholdi Park, the [[United States Botanic Garden]], Washington, D.C., United States.
* 1880: ''[[The Lion of Belfort]]'', in [[Belfort]], France, a massive sculpture of a [[lion]] depicting the huge struggle of the French to hold off the [[Prussia]]n assault at the end of the [[Franco-Prussian War]].<ref name="Apletons_1900"/> A plaster was exhibited in 1878.<ref name="Apletons_1900"/> Bartholdi was an officer himself during this period, attached to [[Garibaldi]].
* 1889: ''[[Strassburger memorial|Switzerland Succoring Strasbourg]]'' at [[Basel]], [[Switzerland]], which was a gift from the French city of [[Strasbourg]], in appreciation of the humanitarian help it had received during the Franco-Prussian War.
* 1890: Statue of Liberty in [[Potosí]], Bolivia.
* 1892: [[Fontaine Bartholdi]], on the [[Place des Terreaux]], in [[Lyon]], France.
* 1893: [[Statue of Christopher Columbus (Providence, Rhode Island)|Statue of Christopher Columbus]], cast in silver for the 1892 [[Columbian Exposition]] in Chicago, Illinois; a bronze replica was erected in [[Providence, Rhode Island]] in 1893 and was taken down in June 2020.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Amaral |first1=Brian |title=Providence removes statue of Christopher Columbus, its fate unclear |url=https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20200625/providence-removes-statue-of-christopher-columbus-its-fate-unclear |access-date=29 June 2020 |publisher=The Providence Journal |date=25 June 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Dedication of the Bartholdi statue of Columbus |url=https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:318514/ |website=Brown University Library |publisher=Brown University |access-date=29 June 2020}}</ref>
* 1895: Lafayette and Washington Monument," in the [[Place des États-Unis]], Paris, and an exact replica at [[Morningside Park (New York City)|Morningside Park]], New York City, United States.
* 1903: ''[[Vercingetorix]]'',<ref name="Apletons_1900"/> equestrian statue in [[Place de Jaude]], Clermont-Ferrand.

<gallery mode="packed" heights="180px">
File:Lafayette statue Union Square closeup.jpg|''[[Marquis de Lafayette (Bartholdi)|''Marquis de Lafayette'']]'', statue of [[Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette]] in [[Union Square (New York City)|Union Square]], [[Manhattan]], [[New York City]]
File:Lion de Belfort.jpg|Bartholdi's ''[[Lion of Belfort]]''
File:Statue-vercingetorix-jaude-clermont.jpg|''Vercingetorix'', Place de Jaude, Clermont-Ferrand.
File:Christopher Columbus Statue.jpg|Columbus statue, [[Providence, Rhode Island]], erected 1892, removed 2020
File:Switzerland Succoring Strasbourg in Basel.jpg|''Switzerland Succoring Strasbourg'' in [[Basel]], [[Switzerland]] 
Bartholdi - La Californie de jadis.jpg|''Ancient California'', painting in the [[Musée Bartholdi]], Colmar. Height {{Convert|150|cm|abbr=on}}, width {{Convert|200|cm|abbr=on}}. Between 1871 and 1876.
Bartholdi - La Californie nouvelle.jpg|''The New California'', [[pendant (art)|pendant]] of the preceding work. Same dimensions and inception.
</gallery>

==In popular culture==
''[[The Statue of Liberty (film)|The Statue of Liberty]]'' is a 1985 documentary film by [[Ken Burns]] which focuses on the statue's history and its impact on society.

Bartholdi's life and creation of ''Liberty Enlightening the World'' are also featured in the 2019 documentary film, ''Liberty: Mother of Exiles''.

In the youtube series ''[[The Monument Mythos]]'', various episodes in the first season document his life and works.

==See also==
*[[Musée Bartholdi]]
*[[Statue of Liberty Museum]]

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{Reflist}}

'''Sources'''
* {{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Bartholdi, Frederic Auguste|year=1900}}

===Further reading===

* {{cite book
  | last =Belot
  | first =Robert
  |author2=Daniel Bermond
  | title =Bartholdi
  | year =2004
  }}
* Blanchet, Christian. ''Statue of Liberty: The First Hundred Years'' (American Heritage Publishing Co., 1985).
* {{cite book
  | last =Durante
  | first =Dianne
  | title =Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide
  | publisher =New York University Press
  | year =2007
  }}
* {{cite book
  | last =Gschaedler
  | first =Andre
  | title =True Light on the Statue of Liberty and Her Creator
  | year =1966
  }}
* {{cite book
  | last =Moreno
  | first =Barry
  | title =The Statue of Liberty Encyclopedia
  | publisher =[[Simon & Schuster]]
  | year =2000
  | location =[[New York City|New York]]
  | isbn =0-684-86227-1
  | url =https://archive.org/details/statueoflibertye00more
  }}
* New York Public Library. ''Liberty: the French-American statue in art and history'' (Harper & Row, 1986).
* Price, Willadene. ''Bartholdi and the Statue of Liberty'' (Rand McNally, 1959).

== External links ==
{{Commons}}
* [http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/artist-info.6761.html Biography] by the [[National Gallery of Art]]
* [http://www.usbg.gov/gardens/barthodli-park.cfm The Bartholdi Fountain and Bartholdi Park – Washington, DC]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090127043325/http://musee-bartholdi.com/musee/ The Musée Bartholdi] {{in lang|fr}}
* [https://archive.org/details/statuelibertyen00bartgoog The Statue of ''Liberty Enlightning the World'', described by the sculptor Frédéric Bartholdi]
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi}}
* {{Librivox author |id=10095}}
* {{FrenchSculptureCensus}}

{{Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi}}
{{Statue of Liberty}}
{{Authority control (arts)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartholdi, Frederic}}
[[Category:1834 births]]
[[Category:1904 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Colmar]]
[[Category:Alsatian-German people]]
[[Category:20th-century deaths from tuberculosis]]
[[Category:French Freemasons]]
[[Category:Statue of Liberty]]
[[Category:Tuberculosis deaths in France]]
[[Category:French military personnel of the Franco-Prussian War]]
[[Category:Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Legion of Honour]]
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[[Category:19th-century French sculptors]]
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