BARTHOLDI (Auguste). - Lot 16

Lot 16
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300 - 400 EUR
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Result : 1 430EUR
BARTHOLDI (Auguste). - Lot 16
BARTHOLDI (Auguste). Autograph letter signed to a "dear Monsieur". Paris, October 28, 1881. 2 pp. 1/2 in-8, letterhead printed with his monogram. "If I have delayed replying to your kind letter, it is because I HAVE BEEN SO BUSY SINCE THESE LAST DAYS, WITH THE AFFAIRS OF MY AMERICAN STATUE. I was very pleased to learn that my proposal was acceptable to you, because I was having a hard time getting the Rouget de Lisle statue done, and the foundrymen's demands made it impossible for me to get it done. I will be ready at the time you indicate, and this will enable me to study and work on my work this winter with all the care and pleasure I am happy to bring to it. I thank you very much for your gracious thoughts for me, I have already seen myself dismissed several times in official awards by more active candidates than myself; but I have always preferred to wait for these things from the spontaneity of events or the influence of people who esteem me. I am very touched... by the sentiments you have expressed to me on this occasion. I have taken good note of your observations concerning the count's crown and the inscriptions. I will need a drawing that could be submitted to the Council for approval. As for the inscriptions proposed by M. de Ronchaud [historian and director of national museums Louis de Ronchaud], I'm very happy with them; for I've already looked to see if I could find something in Victor Hugo; I'll draw up a layout for the side panels...". THE STATUE OF LIBERTY was designed by the sculptor Auguste Bartholdi, with a metal structure by the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and then by the engineer Gustave Eiffel. It took almost ten years to complete, from the first works in 1875 to its installation and inauguration in New York in 1886. - As for the statue by Claude-Joseph ROUGET DE LISLE, it was the subject of a national subscription under the honorary presidency of Victor Hugo, and was inaugurated in Lons-le-Saunier, the birthplace of the author of La Marseillaise, in August 1882. "WE ARE SURROUNDED BY MARVELS, IT'S A MATTER OF SEEING THEM AND MAKING THEM SEEN...".
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