Fr矇d矇ric Auguste Bartholdi (August 2, 1834 - October 4, 1904) was a French sculptor. He attended the Lycee Louis-le-Grand in Paris, and received a BA in 1852. He then went on to study architecture at the ?cole nationale sup矇rieure des Beaux-Arts as well as painting under Ary Scheffer in his studio in the Rue Chaptal. Later, he turned his attention to sculpture, which afterward exclusively occupied him. The work for which Bartholdi is most famous is Liberty Enlightening the World, better known as the Statue of Liberty. Before starting his commission, Bartholdi had traveled to the United States and personally selected Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor as the site for the statue. The United States agreed to responsibility for funding the building of the pedestal, with about $300,000 being raised. In October 1886, the structure was officially presented both to the nation and to all aspirers to liberty within the world, as the joint gift of the French and American people. He died of tuberculosis in 1904 at the age of 70. No photographer credited, undated.