Welcome to the Statue of Liberty!!
The Statue of Liberty National Monument officially celebrated her
100th birthday on October 28, 1986. The people of France gave the
Statue to the people of the United States over one hundred years ago
in recognition of the friendship established during the American
Revolution. Over the years, the Statue of Liberty has grown to
include freedom and democracy as well as this international
friendship.
The giant sculpture, designed by the French sculptor Frederick
Auguste Bartholdi, was given by France to the United States to
commemoraten the centennial of US independence and Bartholdi`s
intention was to honor the idea of liberty.
Many people believed Charlotte Bartholdi (1801-1891) was the model
for the statue. Others thought it was based on her son's early
drawings for a never-commissioned statue in Egypt. The sculptor's
true inspiration for his masterpiece remains a mystery.
Bartholdi began his career as a painter, but it was as a sculptor
that he was to express his true spirit and gain his greatest fame.
His first commission for a public monument came to him at the young
age of 18. It was for a statue of one of Colmar's native sons,
General Jean Rapp, one of Napoleon Bonaparte's generals. Even at 18,
Bartholdi loved bigness. The statue of the general was 12 feet tall
and was removed from Bartholdi's studio with only one inch to spare.
The statue established his reputation as a sculptor of note and led
to commissions for similar oversized patriotic works.
A man of his time, Bartholdi wasn't alone in his passion for art on a
grand scale. During the 19th century, large-scale public monuments
were an especially popular art form. It was an age of ostentation,
largely inspired by classical Greek and Roman civilizations. Most
monuments reflected either the dress or architecture of these ancient
times, so the artistic style of the 19th century came to be known as
neoclassical.
However, it was a trip to Egypt that was to shift his artistic
perspective from simply grand to colossal. The overwhelming size and
mysterious majesty of the Pyramids and the Sphinx were awesome to the
enthusiastic young Bartholdi. He wrote, "Their kindly and impassive
glance seems to ignore the present and to be fixed upon an unlimited
future."
While visiting Egypt, Bartholdi met a fellow Frenchman with ideas as
big as his own, who was to become his friend for life. Count
Ferdinand-Marie de Lesseps dreamed of piercing the desert with a
canal that would run from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. While
others first laughed at de Lesseps, Bartholdi was inspired by the
magnitude of the idea. As a sculptor, he envisioned a giant
lighthouse standing at the entrance to de Lesseps's canal. It would
be patterned after the Roman goddess Libertas, and twice the size of
the Sphinx.
Facts About Miss Liberty!
Actual Title of Statue: "Liberty Enlightening the World"
Date Construction of the Statue began in France: 1875
Date of Final Assembly of statue & pedestal: 1886
The Statue of Liberty ("Liberty Enlightening the World"
is a 225-
ton, steel-reinforced copper female figure, 152 ft. in height, facing
the ocean from Liberty Island in New York Harbor. The right hand
holds aloft a torch, and the left hand carries a tablet upon which is
inscribed: "July IV MDCCLXXVI."
Guess the 'Frogs' aren't so bad afterall....
The Statue of Liberty National Monument officially celebrated her
100th birthday on October 28, 1986. The people of France gave the
Statue to the people of the United States over one hundred years ago
in recognition of the friendship established during the American
Revolution. Over the years, the Statue of Liberty has grown to
include freedom and democracy as well as this international
friendship.
The giant sculpture, designed by the French sculptor Frederick
Auguste Bartholdi, was given by France to the United States to
commemoraten the centennial of US independence and Bartholdi`s
intention was to honor the idea of liberty.
Many people believed Charlotte Bartholdi (1801-1891) was the model
for the statue. Others thought it was based on her son's early
drawings for a never-commissioned statue in Egypt. The sculptor's
true inspiration for his masterpiece remains a mystery.
Bartholdi began his career as a painter, but it was as a sculptor
that he was to express his true spirit and gain his greatest fame.
His first commission for a public monument came to him at the young
age of 18. It was for a statue of one of Colmar's native sons,
General Jean Rapp, one of Napoleon Bonaparte's generals. Even at 18,
Bartholdi loved bigness. The statue of the general was 12 feet tall
and was removed from Bartholdi's studio with only one inch to spare.
The statue established his reputation as a sculptor of note and led
to commissions for similar oversized patriotic works.
A man of his time, Bartholdi wasn't alone in his passion for art on a
grand scale. During the 19th century, large-scale public monuments
were an especially popular art form. It was an age of ostentation,
largely inspired by classical Greek and Roman civilizations. Most
monuments reflected either the dress or architecture of these ancient
times, so the artistic style of the 19th century came to be known as
neoclassical.
However, it was a trip to Egypt that was to shift his artistic
perspective from simply grand to colossal. The overwhelming size and
mysterious majesty of the Pyramids and the Sphinx were awesome to the
enthusiastic young Bartholdi. He wrote, "Their kindly and impassive
glance seems to ignore the present and to be fixed upon an unlimited
future."
While visiting Egypt, Bartholdi met a fellow Frenchman with ideas as
big as his own, who was to become his friend for life. Count
Ferdinand-Marie de Lesseps dreamed of piercing the desert with a
canal that would run from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. While
others first laughed at de Lesseps, Bartholdi was inspired by the
magnitude of the idea. As a sculptor, he envisioned a giant
lighthouse standing at the entrance to de Lesseps's canal. It would
be patterned after the Roman goddess Libertas, and twice the size of
the Sphinx.
Facts About Miss Liberty!
Actual Title of Statue: "Liberty Enlightening the World"
Date Construction of the Statue began in France: 1875
Date of Final Assembly of statue & pedestal: 1886
The Statue of Liberty ("Liberty Enlightening the World"
is a 225-ton, steel-reinforced copper female figure, 152 ft. in height, facing
the ocean from Liberty Island in New York Harbor. The right hand
holds aloft a torch, and the left hand carries a tablet upon which is
inscribed: "July IV MDCCLXXVI."
Guess the 'Frogs' aren't so bad afterall....
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