Miss Liberty's Creator

I don't know if they still teach such things, but I remember learning in elementary school that the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France to the United States, was designed by the French sculptor Auguste Bartholdi.  Bartholdi was born in Colmar.  His father died when he was two years old, and the family moved to Paris.  However they held on to their house in Colmar, and even later in life the sculptor continued to maintain his childhood home.   Today, the house is a museum dedicated to Bartholdi and his sculptures.

"Auguste Bartholdi was born in this house the 2nd of August 1834,

died in Paris the 4th of October 1904."

In the courtyard of the house is a large bronze statue that he did two years before his death.  It is entitled "The Great Supporters of the World".

Several rooms of the house deal with his most famous creation, "Liberty Enlightening the Word", the monumental statue that we know as the Statue of Liberty.

Early models for the project

The final model of the Miss Liberty that we know

A model of one of the statue's ears in the actual size of the statue

Prior to being sent to the United States, the statue was assembled in Paris.

This photo shows the arm and torch.

In this photo, the assembled statue towers over the surrounding buildings in Paris.  The statue was then disassembled and shipped to the United States.

Although the Statue of Liberty is Bartholdi's most famous work, it is by no means his only monumental sculpture.

Here is a model for the head of a monument honoring Claude Rouget de Lisle, the author of France's national anthem "La Marseillaise".

In 1864, this fountain designed by Bartholdi was unveiled in a Colmar park.  The central figure is of Armand-Joseph Bruat, an admiral of the French navy during the Crimean War.

Surrounding him are four allegorical figures representing Oceania, America, Africa and Asia.

In 1940, when the Germans invaded France, the Nazis destroyed the fountain.  Some courageous citizens of Colmar rescued the heads of the allegorical figures from the wreckage.

Those heads now reside in the Bartholdi Museum.

After the war, the fountain was rebuilt, using Bartholdi's original design.

This is the model for another monument created by Bartholdi.  It is entitled "Switzerland Rescuing Strasbourg from Its Torment During the 1870 Siege".

It honors the efforts of the Swiss cities of Basel, Zurich, and Bern to negotiate the release of women, children and the elderly when Strasbourg was besieged by the German army during the Franco-Prussian War.

The monument stands just a short distance from the hotel where I was staying in Basel.

We will return to Basel for the last two installments of this European trip.