#history
STATUE OF LIBERTY
How did the widow of the creator of the Singer sewing machines give her face to the Statue of Liberty?
Isabella Boyer’s life is like a thrilling novel. She was born in Paris, in a family of an African pastry chef father and an English mother. It quickly became clear that nature gave Isabella a ll special beauty.
At 20, she marries sewing machine maker Isaac Singer, 50, and after his death becomes the richest woman in the country. And no wonder she was chosen as the model for the Statue of Liberty, because she embodied the American dream. After becoming a widow, Isabella began travelling the world, seeking new knowledge and exciting challenges, far too young to be buried under mourning clothes.
She remarried Dutch violinist Victor Robstett, who is a world celebrity and an earl, so Isabella also became a countess. Soon Isabella was the star of showrooms in America and Europe, and was invited to all world events. At one of them, she met the famous French sculptor Frederick Bartoldi. At the time, Bartoldi was strongly impressed by his trip to the United States, by the size of the country, by its natural resources, by the population there, and had already accepted the proposal to create a statue symbolizing the independence of the United States. The sculpture was supposed to be a gift from France in honor of the 100th anniversary of the country’s independence. Thus the idea of a giant statue depicting a woman holding a torch in one hand and plates in the other was born, with the date of adoption of the Declaration of Independence of the United States.
Bartoldi was so impressed by Isabella’s face that he decided to use it as a model for his sculpture. Therefore, on Bedlow Island in the Gulf of New York, the Statue of Liberty was erected with the figure of an ancient goddess, but with the face of Isabella Boyer.
Isabella was married for the third time, at the age of 50, to Paul Sohege, a famous collector of art.
She died in Paris in 1904 at age 62. She is buried in Passy Cemeter The statue with her face continues to rise over Bedlow Island, symbolising America’s freedom
