Bartholdi fait mine de se marier et rencontre le peintre Hector Giacomelli

Autograph letter signed and dated by the sculptor Auguste Bartholdi addressed to the writer Edmond About. Two pages in black ink on a single sheet.
Traces of transverse creases inherent to mailing.
Bartholdi enthusiastically receives congratulations from Edmond About on the occasion of his marriage; however, the "future Mrs. Bartholdi" does not exist! At the time of this letter, the sculptor has no intention of entering into matrimony, despite the ceremonious letter he addresses here to his friend About, his companion in debauchery alongside Gustave Doré.
The famous sculptor addresses this enigmatic letter to Edmond About, otherwise famous for his novels such as L'Homme à l'oreille cassée (1862) or for his writings as a republican and anticlerical journalist in Le Figaro, Le Gaulois and even his own newspaper Le XIXe siècle which he would create in 1871. In his book Alsace 1871-1872, he would notably portray the severe Mrs. Bartholdi, the sculptor's mother, who ardently wished for her son to find a wife. Although this letter indicates otherwise, Bartholdi would marry only eight years later, in 1876, to Jeanne-Émilie Baheux de Puysieux, a Nancy native of modest origin: the scandalous union would be hastily celebrated across the Atlantic to his mother's great dismay, also with the aim of appeasing the American investors of the Statue of Liberty who disapproved of his bachelor status. According to André Gschedler, Bartholdi's mother would have announced her son's marriage several years even before he met his future wife, with the aim of appeasing those around him. This could explain the astonishing lines of this letter: "I am very sensitive to the congratulations you address to me regarding my marriage. I am guilty of having let you learn of it from others rather than from me; but I must confess that I was reserving for myself the pleasure of announcing it to you personally". The sculptor also mentions his pleasant meeting with Hector Giacomelli, watercolorist and draftsman.

Precious and aesthetic letter from the future creator of the Statue of Liberty, revealing an episode little known to his biographers.


"Mon cher ami,
j'ai reçu la visite de M. Giacomelli et vous remercie du plaisir que vous m'avez procuré. Il s'est arrêté trop peu de temps malheureusement à Colmar mais j'espère l'y ramener une autre fois.
Je suis très sensible aux félicitations que vous m'adressez, au sujet de mon mariage. Je suis coupable de vous l'avoir fait apprendre par d'autres que par moi ; mais je dois vous avouer que je me réservais le plaisir de vous l'annoncer personnellement.
[...]
Veuillez je vous prie me rappeler au souvenir de Madame About en lui présentant tous mes hommages. Je la remercie bien ainsi que vous des sentiments que vous témoignez d'avance à la future Mme Bartholdi et me réjouis infiniment de vous la présenter.
Ma mère me charge de vous remercier de votre meilleur souvenir et moi je vous renouvelle tous mes remerciements du plaisir que vous m'avez fait en me faisant connaître un fort aimable artiste que j'aimais déjà par ses oeuvres. [...]"