Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi

Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi ( , ; 2 August 1834 – 4 October 1904) was a French sculptor and painter. He is best known for designing Liberty Enlightening the World, commonly known as the Statue of Liberty, in New York City, United States. Its construction was begun by Viollet-le-Duc, famous for his restoration of the most prominent medieval landmarks in France, until his death and then completed by Gustave Eiffel. The statue was a gift from France to the United States and was erected in 1886 on Liberty Island, at the entrance to New York harbor.

He also created the monumental Lion of Belfort, which commemorates the heroic resistance of the city of Belfort during the siege of 1870 to 1871. His rare paintings are usually signed under the pseudonym "Amilcar Hasenfratz."

Early life and education

Bartholdi was born in Colmar, France, on 2 August 1834. He was born to a family of Alsatian Protestant heritage, with his family name adopted from Barthold. His parents were Jean Charles Bartholdi (1791–1836) and Augusta Charlotte Bartholdi (; 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.

Bartholdi's father, a property owner and counselor to the prefecture, died when Bartholdi was two years old. 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. The Port Said Lighthouse was built instead by in 1869.

The war and Statue of Liberty

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. 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. In 1876, Bartholdi was one of the French commissioners in 1876 to the 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.

Personal life In 1876, he married Jeanne-Emile Baheux in Providence, Rhode Island. Throughout his life Bartholdi maintained his childhood family home in Colmar; in 1922, it was made into the Musée Bartholdi. The statue is , and the top of the torch is at an elevation of from mean low-water mark. It was the largest work of its kind that had been completed up to that time. in 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 Prussian assault at the end of the Franco-Prussian War. 1895: Lafayette and Washington Monument," in the Place des États-Unis, Paris, and an exact replica at Morningside Park, New York City, United States. 1903: Vercingetorix, equestrian statue in Place de Jaude, Clermont-Ferrand.

In popular culture 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.

Bartholdi is a minor character in the analog horror series The Monument Mythos, with the contents of a fictional "Libertylurker" interview being a major plot point.