Frédéric Bartholdi in 1855 visited Egypt with a group of artists and fell in love with the large pyramids, Sphinx and the Colossus of Rhodes. Returning to Paris he was inspired to create a large statue of his own. In 1869 he returned to Egypt with a proposal of his own. Egypt Carrying the Light to Asia was to be an immense lady in a grecian draped dress holding a torch and placed at the entrance to the Suez Canal. Isma'il Pasha, Khedive of Egypt, declined the idea and then the Franco Prussian began putting his dream to rest, for a bit.
In 1865 at a dinner with friend Edouard Laboulaye, shortly after the assasination of Abraham Lincoln the idea would resurface, inspired by his widow. The French paper Le Phare de la Loire wanted to give a medal to the widow, Mary Todd Lincoln in remembrance of her husband and what he accomplished. “Dedicated to French democracy to Lincoln, an honest man who abolished slavery, restored the union, saved the Republic without veiling the statue of liberty”. It was those last three words that reminded Bartholdi of his monumental idea.
Laboulaye was a lawyer and president of the Franco-American union and had an idea to give something to the US in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Bartholdi had just completed a bust of the lawyer and knew of his interest in creating a memorable sculpture.
As fundraising began in France and in the US,Bartholdi adopted the idea that he had for the Suez Canal and tapped Viollet-le-Duc to help design the head and arm of the beauty. Pierre-Eugene Secrétan donated 64 tons of copper plates and the Gaget-Gauther began shaping each plate in their factory a few blocks from Parc Monceau and next to the studio of Éiffel. Viollet-le-Duc died before the first copper model could be completed and another guy pretty good with iron stepped in, Gustave Éiffel.
The coal to have the statue completed was July 4, 1876 but only a small fraction and the torch was completed. Two years later the bust of Liberty was displayed in the Champ de Mars, and for a few centimes visitors could walk up into her crown. Slowly overtime she was pieced together and could be seen towering over the neighborhood before finally being sent to New York in 1886. In October of 1886 she was inaugurated and placed on her island ten years later than expected.
It has long been speculated who the face is modeled from and many stories exist. Bartholdi most likely used his mother Charlotte as the model, although other stories include it being a prostitute of Pigall, or Isabella Eugenie Boyer Singer, of the sewing machine fame. We may not know who she is but she holds a lot of symbolism. Her crown of seven spikes evokes the seven continents or oceans and the tablet she holds the law. Her torch that once acted as a lighthouse the enlightenment and at her feet a broken chain.
The tablet of the one in Paris we see today reads Juillet IV 1776 - Juillet XIV 1789
When the one on the Ile aux Cygnes was installed in June 1889 for the Universal Exhibition, the same year the Eiffel Tower. She faced the Eiffel Tower and the Elysees palace and her back to the US and her big sister which Bartoldi strongly opposed. It wasn’t until 1937 that she was turned around and looking east and greeting those floating down the Seine into Paris.
Ile aux Cygnes
The original Island of Swans was farther upstream and closer to the Pont Alexandre III in the 17th century. In 1676 Louis XIV had forty swans from Denmark dropped onto a small strip of land. Residents couldn’t keep up with all the eggs being laid and the swans to be protected by the court. Later the strip was absorbed into the quai and we can hope the swans we see today are descendants of the royal swans of the Seine.
The current island was created in 1825 on a narrow dike that was created from the construction of the Pont de Grenelle. On May 1, 1827 the bridge was opened and charged a few cents for each carriage and pedestrian that walked over it. Even the cows, sheep and pigs had to pay a toll.
The island is crossed by three bridges, the Grenelle, Rouelle and Bir Hakeim. In the center is the Pont Rouelle, named for French chemist Guillaume-François Rouelle of the 18th century. Created for the trains to travel over, it would later be used for the expanding metro and RER that still use it today.
The island itself in 1937 expanded to four times its current size for the “center of colonies” of the 1937 Universal Exhibition. The island was covered with temporary buildings which were all destroyed after the exhibition was over.