Bartholdi Museum
In the heart of old Colmar, the birthplace of Auguste Bartholdi (Colmar 1834 – Paris 1904) has housed since 1922 the museum dedicated to this emblematic artist of the 19th century. Sculptures, paintings, drawings and photographs decline his work according to the rooms spread over three floors.
Many monuments designed by Bartholdi still adorn the buildings, squares, squares and public parks of cities in Europe and North America. They are thirty-two in number, not counting the funerary monuments.
A set of models of these creations, from the artist’s studio, are kept at the Bartholdi Museum.
Other models bear witness to monuments that remained at the project stage during his lifetime. Thus, The Modern Martyr, made in 1864, the bronze of which was not cast and then erected in the courtyard of the Royal Palace in Warsaw until 2004-2005. The three models of the Palais de Longchamp in Marseille reveal an architect Bartholdi, disappointed to have been excluded from the project in favor of another project manager.
Colmar was generously endowed by the sculptor with nine public monuments designed between 1856 and 1902. Presented on the ground floor of the museum, the Monument to the Memory of General Rapp, the Bruat Fountain, the Monument to Martin Schongauer or the original bronze of the Petit Vigneron alsacien are some examples.
On the first floor, family furniture and personal memories reconstruct Bartholdi’s last apartment. A work by Ary Scheffer, a Parisian artist from the Second Empire, a large portrait of his mother, Charlotte Bartholdi, adorns one of the living room walls. On the same floor, a room is entirely dedicated to models and studies of the Lion of Belfort, one of the artist’s most famous works. Another room, following, presents the great men of France and in particular the large plaster model of Vercingetorix as a fighting hero.
The second floor is dedicated to the artist’s American works. Commemorating the centennial of the Independence of the United States (1776-1876), Liberty Enlightening the World, popularized as the “Statue of Liberty”, is not only the most famous of the works designed by Bartholdi, but also one of the major technological achievements of the 19th century. First models, terracottas, drawings, paintings, engravings and photographs bear witness to the epic that was the birth of this colossal monument.
The temporary exhibition (October 15, 2017 to December 31, 2018): “Bartholdi, Intimate Portrait of the Sculptor, the Exhibition” reveals objects hitherto hidden in the museum’s reserves and archives. Explanatory panels are inspired by a few chapters of R. Belot’s new work “BARTHOLDI, intimate portrait of the sculptor”, which will also serve as an exhibition catalogue. Museum open from March 1 to December 31, Wednesday to Monday, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Closed on Tuesdays.
Closed in January-February, May 1, November 1 and December 25.
Admission price :
€6.00 adults
€4.00 senior (65+)
€4.00 teachers and adult groups (from 10 people).
Free for children under 18, students and people with reduced mobility on presentation of the card.
ADDRESS :
Bartholdi Museum
30 Merchant Street
68000
Colmar
France
+33 3 89 41 90 60
Site link: Bartholdi Museum
Partner site link: Museums Pass Museum