Auguste Bartholdi<\/strong>, originally from the Alsace<\/a><\/strong> region.<\/p>\n Doesn’t really ring a bell, non<\/strong><\/em>?<\/p>\n His other work, however, is one of the\u00a0best known monuments in the world. <\/span><\/p>\n Ever heard of New York<\/strong>‘s\u00a0<\/span>Statue of Liberty<\/strong>, par exemple<\/strong><\/em>?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Well, the story behind the Bartholdi Fountain<\/strong> in Lyon is not less “mouvement\u00e9e<\/em><\/strong>” (a French way to say “action-packed”, or just “eventful” if you prefer) than that of the Statue of Liberty “illuminant le monde<\/strong><\/em>” (“Enlightening the World.”)<\/p>\n But make that on a much more “compact” scale, so to speak.<\/p>\n Initially, the fountain, which has an “older sister” still standing in Washington D.C.<\/a><\/strong>, was meant to be constructed in another French city, much to the west of Lyon. <\/span><\/p>\n In 1857<\/strong>, when he was barely 23 years old, Bartholdi struck a deal with the city of Bordeaux<\/a><\/strong> to build a fountain in its well-known\u00a0Place des Quinconces<\/strong><\/em>, one of the largest city squares in all of Europe. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A rather\u00a0bonne affaire <\/strong><\/em>for a debuting artist.<\/p>\n However, for various tedious reasons better not to mention here, the project n’a pas vu le jour\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(did not see the light.)<\/p>\n More than thirty years later, Bartholdi finally brought his work to completion.<\/p>\n He exhibited it during the 1889 Exposition Universelle<\/em><\/strong> in Paris<\/strong>. And\u00a0what a <\/span>franc succ\u00e8s<\/strong><\/em> it was.<\/span><\/p>\n By then, the reputation of Bartholdi was not to be made anymore. Only three years earlier, he had finished the Statue of Liberty.<\/span><\/p>\n The Mayor of Lyon, a fine opportunist, to put it nicely, immediately seized upon the occasion to ask the French sculptor to install the fountain in his<\/em> city.<\/p>\n Though a bit disappointed at first by the modest price the city of Lyon was willing to disburse for his \u0153uvre<\/strong><\/em>, Bartholdi ended up accepting the less than generous offer.<\/p>\n He personally selected la Place des Terreaux<\/em><\/strong>, right between\u00a0l’h\u00f4tel de ville <\/strong><\/em>(the City Hall) and the\u00a0Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon, <\/strong>to be the site of his fontaine<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n The choice of the location was probably not purely random.<\/p>\n The adjacent Lyon Museum houses works of <\/span>Charles Le Brun<\/strong>, namely the Sun King’s favorite artist, and maybe more significantly to Bartholdi, the teacher of <\/span>Jean-Baptiste Tuby<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n Indeed, Lyon’s Bartholdi Fountain found its direct inspiration in Tuby’s Basin d’apollon<\/strong><\/em> in Versailles<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n
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