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LTC Stephen F.
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Thank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on October 4 1904 the French sculptor who designed the Statue of Liberty Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi died of tuberculosis at the age of 70.
THE STATUE OF LIBERTY (Body of Iron Soul of Fire) History Documentary Video
1986 - IN THE YEAR OF CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION AND RESTORATION OF THE STATUE OF LIBERTY, ARTS AMERICA HOST JOHN BOS INTRODUCES THIS FILM ON THE STATUE, "BODY OF IRON, SOUL OF FIRE." THE FILM TRACES THE SYMBOLIC NATURE OF THE STATUE, AND LOOKS AT THE LIFE AND INSPIRATIONS OF BARTHOLDI, ITS CREATOR.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7yFbJxIffM

Images:
1. Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi in his studio
2. Bartholdi's statue of the wine grower
3. Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Estampes et photographies
4. A portrait of Auguste Bartholdi.

Background from {[https://www.museeprotestant.org/en/notice/frederic-auguste-bartholdi-1834-1904-2/]}
The French sculptor was born in Colmar to an Alsatian Protestant family. He is well known for the famous Statue of Liberty (New-York and Paris) and for the Lion of Belfort (in Denfert-Rochereau square in Paris).

Bartholdi spent his childhood in Colmar but was then sent to Paris, where he had relatives, to study at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand (secondary school). He planned to become an architect before turning to painting. He then joined the workshop of Ary Scheffer at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, who advised him to become a sculptor. He studied this art at the studio of Jean-François Soitoux (1816-1891). As early as 1854 Bartholdi took part in a competition, organised by the city of Colmar, entering an imposing statue of Colmar-born General Rapp (1771-1821). Bartholdi’s project was selected and the sculpture shown at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1855. It was erected in Colmar in 1856 and was an immediate success.

At this time he travelled to Egypt with, particularly, the painter Jean-Léon Gérôme, and then alone to Yemen and Ethiopia. He came back with lots of drawings and photographs, which were to influence his later work. He was particularly charmed by local colossal art that inspired his idea for a lighthouse to mark the entrance of the Suez Canal. It was submitted, but refused by Ferdinand de Lesseps in 1896.

Public commissions
Bartholdi benefitted from many urban regeneration projects undertaken during the Second Empire and Third Republic, producing many huge statues including:
• a statue of General Arrighi de Casanova for Corte (Haute-Corse) in 1868,
• a statue of Vauban at Avallon (Yonne) in 1871,
• an equestrian statue of Vercingetorix in Clermont-Ferrand (Puy de Dôme) – ordered in 1870 but created around 1900,
• a statue of Rouget de Lisle in Lons-le-Saunier (Jura) in 1879,
• a statue of Diderot in Langres (Haute-Marne) in 1884,
• a group showing Washington and La Fayette for Paris in 1892.

Bartholdi also had many private commissions, especially for funeral monuments, (Emile Hubner in Mulhouse Cemetery in 1890). He also took part in the ornamentation of two temples:
in Boston he designed a project depicting Baptism, Communion, Marriage and Burial; the bas-relief, produced by Italian sculptors, ran along the high part of the First Baptist Church bell tower
in 1874, at Boissy-Saint-Léger (Val de Marne), he decorated the doorway tympanum of the temple with a high relief representing Faith and Hope.

Bartholdi the architect
Bartholdi was not limited to sculpture and in 1859 he tendered for an urban architectural project in Marseilles, for a water tower and a museum. It was officially selected, but the new local council gave the project to the architect Espérandieu. The latter copied Bartholdi’s project for the Palais Longchamp so accurately that only, after many years, the sculptor won his lawsuit against the city.

An activist artist following the annexation of Alsace
Bartholdi enrolled in the Garde Nationale (National Guard) when war broke out in 1870. First he served in Colmar and became Garibaldi’s aide de camp, then head of the «Armée des Vosges» (“Vosges Army”). The annexation of Alsace by Germany greatly influenced his work:
the tomb of the national guards in Colmar (Haut-Rhin),
the scourge of Alsace (a group made of silver and given to Gambetta in 1872),
Switzerland easing the pains of Strasbourg during the 1870 siege (for the city of Basel in 1895).
To commemorate the heroic resistance of Belfort (Territoire de Belfort – territory of Belfort) during the 1870 war, he offered the city an imposing sculpture, 22 meters long and 11 meters high, inserted in the citadel wall. It was to be in rose sandstone from the Vosges region, and to represent a wounded lion roaring furiously. A downsized model of the Lion de Belfort was cast in bronze to be set in the middle of the Denfert-Rochereau square in Paris, and unveiled in 1880. Last, but not finally least, he created the Monument to the balloonists during the siege of Paris – the famous Ballon des Ternes which was melted by the Germans in 1942.

The Statue of Liberty
After the war of 1870 Bartholdi travelled to the United States with the idea of designing a sculpture to celebrate American Independence. Entering the Bay of New-York on 21 June, 1871, he imagined a colossal statue erected at the harbour entrance: Liberty Enlightening the World.

This work was directly inspired by the project he had designed for Suez. With the help of Gustave Eiffel, for the engineering, Bartholdi designed a 33-meter high statue made of copper strips on a steel structure, set on a 34-meter high pedestal. The statue was produced in Paris and unveiled in New-York in 1886, and gained its maker the title of Citizen of New-York.

The sculpture was soon famous worldwide and many replicas were made in various sizes. One of the most well-known has adorned the downstream end of the «Ile aux Cygnes» (pont de Grenelle) in Paris since 1885. The latest was erected at the North entrance to Colmar, on the hundredth anniversary of Bartholdi’s death.

A patriotic inspiration and sense of the monumental enabled Bartholdi to completely alter the tradition of sculpture in public places.

The house where Bartholdi was born was turned into a museum in 1904. It shows multiple aspects of his work as a sculptor and an architect, as a painter and a designer

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LTC Stephen F.
LTC Stephen F.
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Auguste Bartholdi. Sculptor of the “Lion of Belfort” and other works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F006lA0ZQY

Images:
1. Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi standing Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg
2. Bartholdi's statue of General Rapp (19th century) in Colmar
3. Statue of Liberty in Paris by Auguste Barthold
4. Illustration showing visitors to Bedloe's island where construction of the pedestal continued.

Background from {[https://www.quora.com/Why-was-the-Statue-of-Liberty-built-on-a-separate-island]}
Why was the Statue of Liberty built on a separate island?
Steve Buccellato, former Park Ranger at Statue of Liberty at National Park Service of the United States (2007-2015)
Updated April 17, 2019
The statue of liberty was built on (then) Bedloe's island because it was both owned by the US Government (Fort Wood was a military base since 1811) and was in New York Harbor.
When the artist Frederic Auguste Bartholdi visited America (by request of Edouard Rene de Laboulaye) in the early 1870s he came by steamer ship into NYC. Upon entering NY Harbor, he saw the island and its Fort as he passed by it making a note of its place. He was visiting America to learn more about its people, culture, and its monumental size.
After visiting with dignitaries and businessmen, attending gala events and meeting with many of New York’s society members he traveled around the country to find a fitting place for his prospective artwork.
He and his wife visited Niagara falls, Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco, and other cities on his nearly year long tour. Yet he continued to think about that island in NY Harbor that he passed. He decided it was the perfect place to raise a large sculpture for all to see.

By the end of his tour of the United States he felt that the island he first saw from the boat entering NY was the place he wanted to place his monumental gift to the people of America from the people of France.
When he finally decided that Bedloe's island was the place for his Artwork and he had Edouard Laboulaye write to President Grant requesting permission to use the old military fort (Fort Wood) as Bedloe's island as the footing for the statue that was going to be created by Bartholdi, and the pedestal that it would rest upon.
On March 3, 1877 President Grant signed the bill authorizing the Artist Fort Wood and Bedloe's island as the choosen place for the Statue by Bartholdi, the future home of the centennial gift from the French people.
So, the island was chosen by Bartholdi himself, through some coaxing and cajoling letters between President Grant and French dignitaries as well as American Socialites and politicians. The fort and Bedloe's island were made available for the French artist and his Artwork.

On June 17, 1885, the statue of liberty that all the world had heard about, finally made it to it's new home in America. With great pomp and celebration the statue, the transport ship “Isere,” and her crew were welcomed to NY Harbor by a flotilla of boats, fireworks, and parties.
The only problem was that the pedestal for the statue of liberty wasn't finished and all work on it had been stopped. There wasn't enough money raised to pay for it and now that the statue was in America ,”We the people” needed to get the pedestal finished and quickly.
After raising $83,000 for the pedestal fund only $3000 remained. The American Committee of the statue of liberty began selling small figures for $1, $5, and $10 each; raising another $50,000 for the fund.

Joseph Pulitzer used his newspaper “The New York World” to Crowdfunding the final $100,000 needed to complete the work on the project and pedestal of the statue of liberty.

By August 1886 the fund for the pedestal was completed and the Statue of Liberty's pedestal was completed. The statue of liberty could finally be erected and finished.

On October 28, 1886 it was opened with ceremony attended by French and American dignitaries and businessmen, including the artist Bartholdi and speeches made by President Grover Cleveland.
“Now that Liberty has made here her home, We shall be sure that her chosen alter, shall not be neglected..” - President Cleveland

After 1924 Bedloe's island and Fort Wood were made a National Monument and in 1956 the name of the island was officially changed to Liberty island."

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GySgt Thomas Vick
GySgt Thomas Vick
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The man did some great work that's for sure.
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SPC Douglas Bolton
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A tremendous statue for Americans to see
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