BARTHOLDI, bar'torda', Frederic Au guste, distinguished French sculptor: b. Col mar, Alsace, 2 April 1834; d. Paris, 4 Oct..1904. While a student in painting under the celebrated Ary Scheffer, he showed a greater. bent api aptitude for sculpture, and deyoted his energies to this branch of art, exhibiting numerous works at the salons. After the Franco-Germap War of 1870-71, whkh he fought on the staff of Garibaldi, he came into prominence by the gigantic (Lion of Belfort) carved out of the red rock on the hiU which towers over the Alsatian city and cotnmemorates its celebrated siege and defense. His statue of 'Lafayette Arriving in America,' now in Union Square, New York city, was presented to the metropolis by France as a mark of gratitude to Americans for sympathy and service during the Franco German War. During the days of the Com mune, when unable to pursue his studio work in Paris, Bartholdi visited the United States, and when arriving in the beautiful harbor of New York, conceived the idea of the colossal statue of (Liberty Enlightening the World,' erected on one of the islands of the harbor to wekome with its flaming torch all arrivals in the Land of Liberty. On his return to France he divulged his plan, and a .body of distill guished Frenchmen formed a society to carry out his project. Bartholdi gave 20 years of devoted effort to the work, personally super intending the rai,sing of the subscription of $400,000 witlk which the French nation gave the statue to the United States. The donations
came mainly from the pence of the poor, re quinng in their collection enormous attention to detail, and when subscriptions lagged, Bartholdi pledged his own private fortune to defray the running expenses and practically impoverished himself over the work. Patiently overcoming all difficulties and obstacles, he had the satisfac tion to see the statue, erected on Bedloe's Island, dedicated with imposing ceremonies by President Cleveland 28 Oct. 1886 (see LIBERTY, STATUE or). Bartholdi was a prolific, sculptor, and among the more notable of his other worlcs are the figures of Washington and Lafayette on the Place des Etats-Unis in Paris; the Bartholdi fountain of the Botanical Gardens in Washing ton; the bronze group of the 'Lyre Among the Berbers, a Souvenir of the Nile,' exhibited at the Salon of 1857; 'Genius in the Talons of Misery,' Salon of 1859; 'Portrait of General Schramm, the Modern Martyr' (1864); (Por trait of Laboulaye' (1866); (The Lasures of Peace' (1868); (Young Alsatian Grave Grower' (1869) ; an equestrian statue of Ver cingetorix (1870) ; portraits of Messieurs Erck mann-Chatrian; his well-known (Curse of Alsace' (1872) ; and 'Switzerland Assuaging the Sorrows of Strassburg, Siege of 1870' (1873).