Is it true that this portrait depicts the woman who became the model for the Statue of Liberty?

Since 2022, a portrait has been circulating on the Internet, allegedly of Isabella Boyer-Singer, who allegedly posed for one of the main attractions of the United States. We figured out whether such publications are correct.

According to one of versions, the author of the Statue of Liberty, sculptor Auguste Bartholdi gave his most famous work a portrait resemblance to his beloved Isabella Boyer-Singer. Since 2022, publications about this began to include a black and white portrait of a woman whose face resembles the face of the sculpture. The authors of such posts claim that it is Boyer-Singer who is depicted in the portrait. Similar publications can be found in Facebookwhere they dial tens and even hundreds reposts, in "VKontakte"and also on entertainment sites And blogging platforms.

The Statue of Liberty, erected in New York in 1886, is one of the most famous female sculptures in history. There are three main versions of whose image served as a prototype for her. According to one of them, the model for the Statue of Liberty was a black slave (this hypothesis was later refuted researchers). According to another version, Bartholdi was inspired by his mother Charlotte, but rethought her image, combining it with extant images of the Roman goddess Libertas. It is this theory adhere to at the Statue of Liberty Museum in New York, so it can be considered more or less official.

However, many Internet users are inclined to the third version: the model for the Statue of Liberty was Isabella Boyer-Singer, with whom Bartholdi was in love.

Isabella Boyer was the last wife of industrialist and inventor Isaac Singer. After his death in 1875, she remained a wealthy widow even though her husband's tumultuous personal life left her had to share inheritance not only with their common children, but also with almost two dozen of his offspring from other women. Already in 1879, Isabella married a second time - to a Dutch singer Nicholas Reubsath. The family lived in Paris, and theoretically Isabella could have met with Bartholdi, but no documentary evidence of this has survived, as well as evidence that the woman became a model for the Statue of Liberty. Historian Sylvia Kahan in its biographies Isabella's daughter, Winnaretta Singer, writes: although this fact is firmly rooted in the Singer family mythology, in those days a married lady occupying a prominent position in society could hardly pose for a sculptor.

As for the black and white portrait allegedly of Isabella Boyer-Singer, using a reverse image search, Verified found its author. It turned out to be a Dutch visual designer Bas Uterwijk, creating portraits of various historical figures using neural networks. On his Instagram Uterwijk published this image is from November 6, 2020 with the caption “This is the latest version of my Lady Liberty. I think she deserves to be here today." In the comments to Reuters the artist emphasized that when creating this reconstruction he did not use original images of Boyer-Singer.

Note that Uterwijk’s work is not the only attempt to “revive” the Statue of Liberty using digital technology. In 2019 its version created author of the YouTube channel Photoshop Surgeon, and in 2022 - Brazilian artist Idrelei Lely Dian.

Thus, there is no convincing evidence that Isabella Boyer-Singer served as the model for the Statue of Liberty for the sculptor Auguste Bartholdi (nor evidence that they knew each other at all). A photo circulating on social media purporting to show Isabella is the work of a modern artist created using artificial intelligence. It shows what the Statue of Liberty might look like if she were a living woman.

Cover photo: collage “Checked”

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

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