Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi

French, 1834 - 1904

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A muscular, nearly nude Black man reclines on a lion’s skin in this freestanding bronze sculpture. In this photograph, his head is to our left and his feet extend to our right. His face tips down, and he has short, curly hair, a furrowed brow, and a small, rounded nose. His full lips are closed, and he has hollows in his cheeks. He leans onto his right elbow, closer to us, which rests on an object, perhaps a basket. His right knee is raised so that foot is flat on the ground. He clutches the bent leg just below the knee with his other hand, and his left leg stretches long. The lion’s head, with eyes closed, rests beneath the bent knee. Long fur, hair, or another material hangs from a rope around the man’s waist. He and the pelt rest on a narrow rectangular base. The dark patina of the bronze has been burnished or rubbed gold in some areas, especially along the ridges of the man’s muscles and on the extended foot.
Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, Allegory of Africa, model 1863/1865, cast date unknown, bronze, Gift of the 50th Anniversary Gift Committee, 1991.84.1

Allegory of Africa

Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi · model 1863/1865, cast date unknown · bronze ·  Accession ID  1991.84.1

Bibliography

1914

  • Lami, Stanislas. Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'école française au dix-neuvième siècle. 4 vols. Paris, 1914-1921: 1(1914):63-69.

1954

  • Betz, Jacques. Bartholdi. Paris, 1954.

1979

  • Société d'histoire et d'archéologie de Colmar. Bartholdi, Annuaire 1979. Colmar, 1979.

1980

  • Busco, Marie. In Peter Fusco and H. W. Janson, eds. The Romantics to Rodin. Exh. cat. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1980: 121-133.

1985

  • Schmitt, Jean-Marie. Bartholdi: une certaine idée de la liberté. Strasbourg, 1985.

1986

  • Liberty: the French-American Statue in Art and History. Exh. cat. New York Public Library, 1986.

1992

  • Schmitt, Jean-Marie. In Saur Allgemeines Künstler Lexikon. Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und völker. Multiple vols. Munich and Leipzig, 1992-: 7(1993):236-238.

1994

  • Vidal, Pierre. Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi 1834-1904: par la main, par l'esprit. Lyon/Montpelier, 1994.

1996

  • Hargrove, June. "Bartholdi." In The Dictionary of Art. Edited by Jane Turner. 34 vols. New York and London, 1996: 3:289-291.

2000

  • Butler, Ruth, and Suzanne Glover Lindsay, with Alison Luchs, Douglas Lewis, Cynthia J. Mills, and Jeffrey Weidman. European Sculpture of the Nineteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2000: 3-4.