Bartholdi Park In DC

Illustration: Watercolor and pen-and-ink, “Bartholdi Park,”  in Canson Montval 5.5 in by 8.5in 140 lb cold press paper sketchbook by Black Elephant Blog author

Weekends are great time for meeting up with other people of all ages and backgrounds who like to sketch, draw and paint–and so that’s what a bunch of us did on a recent beautiful and warm Sunday in Washington, D.C.  Through this artistic connection, I learned of a park I’d never noticed.

It’s called Bartholdi Park, after the sculptor who designed the beautiful fountain the middle of the park.  Bartholdi later went on to design and produce the Statue of Liberty.(A previous blog post on Bartholdi’s home in Colmar, France is here on this blog.)  This park is an oasis of calm in the middle of Washington, D.C.–on Capitol Hill, no less.  The two-acre park is actually part of the National Botanical Garden across the street, but it’s a place where you can sit under any number of shade umbrellas at tables with chairs and enjoy the sound of the fountain and admire the bright flowers and greenery all around!

The Bartholdi Fountain is known as the “Fountain of Light and Water” and was designed  for the 1876 Philadelphia exposition celebrating the 100th anniversary of the United States (see Wikipedia for more info).  Thus its presence in D.C. seems appropriate.  Certainly, its beauty is something amazing to behold.  It’s an ornate fountain that is very hard to capture in a sketch but intriguing enough to make you want to return and try again.

In Colmar, France on the 4th of July

Illustration: Watercolor and pen-and-ink, “Colmar, France Street view” by Black Elephant Blog author (2017)

For those arriving in Colmar, France by car, it can be a big surprise to see a huge replica of the Statue of Liberty at the entrance to the city in the middle of a busy traffic circle.  And never more so, I imagine, for the unsuspecting arriving on the 4th of July, for that was the case for me recently.

Photo taken on 4 July 2017 at the traffic circle entrance to the French city of Colmar, France by Black Elephant Blog author

Thus it was that the next day I headed to the former home of the creator of the Statue of Liberty, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi ( 2 August 1834 – 4 October 1904).  Now a museum, the Bartholdi home was not yet open for the day

Illustration: Pen-and-ink sketch at Bartholdi Museum, Colmar, France

so I spent some time in the shade of the courtyard sketching the sculpture in the middle, which is known as “Les Grand Soutiens du Monde” of “The World’s Great Bases”) representing “Justice, Labour and the Motherland” which was exhibited at the ‘Salon de Paris’ in 1902.  Unsurprisingly, there were other sketchers present in parks and leaning against fountains around the town.

Back out on the streets of Colmar, there was so much to see and do–and taste!  No

Illustration: Street scene in Colmar, France, watercolor and pen-and-ink

wonder there were so many tourists there, mostly from elsewhere in Europe and from Asia, it seemed.  We were on our way to new places much too soon, but so glad to have the experience of visiting Colmar, and knowing that if the opportunity arises, we’ll be back.