Frédéric BARTHOLDI and the Statue of Liberty.

Frédéric BARTHOLDI (1834.1904)

Autograph letter signed to Georges Glaenzer.

Three pages in-8° on paper with its letterhead.

Paris. December 19, 1882.

“I believe that the amateurs who step into the torch will experience a rather strange sensation. »

Superb letter from Bartholdi evoking the Statue of Liberty and his emotion regarding the progress of work on his masterpiece, under construction in Paris.

“My dear friend, it is always with great pleasure that I receive the newspapers on which I see the nice little purple Glaenzer stamp. This gives me news of you and shows that your thoughts cross the water and still live with us. We were very pleased in the Committee to receive news of the American Committee's entry into action. We certainly have to thank your dear father-in-law in particular and this is what I would like to do through you, as I post an official letter from Mr. Laboulaye addressed to Mr. Evarts and his Committee . At the same time, I am sending you some photographs which give details of the work. We are moving forward quickly and in the spring we will see our colossus hovering above Parc Monceau. It's already starting to be devilishly high and I believe that the amateurs who climb the torch will experience a rather strange sensation. So, as you see, everything is going well and if the subscription in America gets in tune with the last meeting, everything will be for the best. Please express to your dear father-in-law all the part I took in his sorrows and worries; let's hope that he will find the elements of satisfaction that he so much deserves in his heart. My wife joins me in sending you, Mrs. Glaenzer and everyone around you our most affectionate wishes for the New Year, and I shake your hand wholeheartedly, your devoted Bartholdi. Mr. de Stuckle, currently in New York, must see you to talk to you about a large painted canvas of the monument which could be useful to the Committee and to which we pay tribute. »

The parts of the statue were stored in the courtyard of the Gaget and Gauthier workshops, in Paris, while waiting to be assembled. Bartholdi's idea was to make a complete assembly of the statue before sending it to New York. The Parisian landscape was thus, for several years, dominated by this imposing metal structure 46 meters high which dwarfed the nearby Monceau Park with its size.

Bartholdi evokes in this letter the men who were decisive in the construction of the Statue:

Georges Auguste Glaenzer (1848.1915), friend and regular correspondent of Bartholdi, expatriate in New York, was Secretary of the French Commission for subscription to the Statue of Liberty.

Édouard de Laboulaye (1811.1883) whom history remembers as the one who inspired the idea of ​​offering a statue to America to seal transatlantic friendship.

Henri de Stucklé , French engineer expatriated to America, who participated, in New York, in the studies of the base of the statue.

William M. Evarts (1818-1901) chaired a Subscription Committee responsible for raising funds for the construction of the base from 1877

Bartholdi's letters evoking the creation of the Statue are of the greatest rarity.