Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi

I thank you very much for your gracious thoughts for me. I have already been overlooked several times in official awards by candidates more active than me; but I have always preferred to wait for these things to come spontaneously from events or from the influence of those who hold me in esteem. I am very touched by the sentiments you express to me on this occasion. I have taken note of your observations regarding the count's crown and the inscriptions. You will need to provide me with a drawing that can be submitted for the Council's approval. As for the inscriptions proposed by Mr. de Ronchaud [the historian and director of national museums Louis de Ronchaud], I am very pleased; for I had already looked to see if I could find something in Victor Hugo; I will make a draft for the arrangement on the side panels..." THE STATUE OF LIBERTY was conceived by the sculptor Auguste Bartholdi, with a metal structure by the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and later by the engineer Gustave Eiffel. The project took nearly ten years, from the initial work in 1875 until its installation and inauguration in New York in 1886. As for his statue of 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 WONDERS, IT IS A MATTER OF SEEING THEM AND MAKING THEM SEEN...".