Edmonia Lewis! The First American Woman Sculptor of Color

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For further reading 📚
Kirsten Pai Buick, Child of Fire: Mary Edmonia Lewis and the Problem of Art History's Black and Indian Subject (Duke University Press, 2010)
Juanita Marie Holland, "Mary Edmonia Lewis's 'Minnehaha': Gender, Race, and the 'Indian Maid," Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts, vol. 69, no. 1/2 (1995), pp. 26–35
Charmaine A. Nelson, The Color of Stone: Sculpting the Black Female Subject in Nineteenth-Century America (University of Minnesota Press, 2007)
Naurice Frank Woods, Jr., "An African Queen at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition 1876: Edmonia Lewis's 'The Death of Cleopatra,'" Meridians, vol. 9, no. 1 (2009), pp. 62–82.

Image Credits 🖼
Edmonia Lewis / photo by Bluesy Daye / Flickr / Public Domain
Edmonia Lewis, Hagar, 1875 / Smithsonian American Art Museum / CC0 Public Domain
Edmonia Lewis, after Michelangelo, Moses, 1875 / Smithsonian American Art Museum / CC0 Public Domain
Edmonia Lewis, Wendell Phillips, 1871 / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution / CC0 Public Domain
Edmonia Lewis, Forever Free, 1867 / Howard University Art Gallery / Photo by Trivium Art History / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Edmonia Lewis, Hiawatha’s Marriage, 1871 / Cincinnati Art Museum / Photo by Daderot / Wikimedia Commons / CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Edward Augustus Brackett, November 1863 / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Edmonia Lewis, Robert Gould Shaw, 1864 / Museum of African American History, Boston & Nantucket / Google Arts and Culture / Public Domain
Edmonia Lewis, Anna Quincy Waterston, c. 1866 / Smithsonian American Art Museum / CC0 Public Domain
Photoglob Co., Roma. Foro Traiano, c. 1890–1906 / Library of Congress / Public Domain
James Anderson, Arch of Constantine, Rome, c. 1858 / Cleveland Art Museum / CC0 Public Domain
Charles Soulier, Rome: Groupe de Laocoon (Vatican), c. 1860 / Cleveland Art Museum / CC0 Public Domain
Charles Soulier, Statue de Tibere, Vatican, c. 1860 / Cleveland Art Museum / CC0 Public Domain
Underwood & Underwood, Sawing marble slabs by hand (about 4 inc. per day) in the famous old quarries of Carrara, Italy, 1902 / Library of Congress / Public Domain
Underwood & Underwood, Huge blocks of world’s finest marble in quarries, Carrara, Italy, 1860–1910 / Library of Congress / Public Domain
Harriet Hosmer on ladder with sculpture of Thomas Hart Benton, ca. 1861–1862 / Schlesinger Library, Harvard University / Public Domain
Emma Stebbins / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Emma Stebbins, Angel of the Waters, in Central Park, NYC / photo by k_tjaaa / Flickr / CC BY 2.0
Louisa Lander, American Sculptor, in Cosmopolitan Art Journal (Mar. 1861) / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
G. H. Loomis, Reverend Leonard Grimes. 1860s / Library of Congress / Public Domain
Copy of Polykleitos’s Doryphoros, 1st century BCE–1st century CE / Naples National Archaeological Museum / photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.5
Gibbs, Gardner and Company, “Am I Not A Woman & A Sister” Anti-Slavery Hard Times Token, 1838 / Yale University Art Gallery / Public Domain
Wedgwood Manufactory, Anti-Slavery Medallion, 1787 / Art Institute of Chicago / CC0 Public Domain
Edmonia Lewis, Hiawatha, 1868 / Metropolitan Museum of art / Public Domain
Edmonia Lewis, Minnehaha, 1868 / Metropolitan Museum of art / Public Domain
Edmonia Lewis, The Old Arrow Maker, carved in 1872 / Smithsonian American Art Museum / Public Domain
Edmonia Lewis, Hiawatha’s Marriage, 1871 / Cincinnati Art Museum / photo by Daderot / Wikimedia Commons / CC0 Public Domain
Illustration showing Modocs scalping and torturing prisoners, 1873 / Library of Congress / Public Domain
Thomas Eakins, Hiawatha, c. 1874 / Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden / Public Domain
Edmonia Lewis, The Death of Cleopatra, completed in 1786 / Smithsonian American Art Museum / Public Domain
Edmonia Lewis, The Death of Cleopatra, completed in 1786 / Smithsonian American Art Museum / photo by Caroline Léna Becker / Wikimedia Commons / CC0 Public Domain
William Wetmore Story, Cleopatra, completed in 1786 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain
Guido Cagnacci, The Death of Cleopatra, c. 1645–55 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain
Workshop of Gerard Peemans, Cleopatra and Antony Enjoying Supper, from The Story of Caesar and Cleopatra. c. 1680 / Art Institute of Chicago / CC0 Public Domain
Roman, Tetradrachm coin portraying Queen Cleopatra VII, 37–33 BCE / Art Institute of Chicago / Public Domain
Love and Beauty—Sartjee the Hottentot Venus, 1811 / Library of Congress / Public Domain
Edmonia Lewis, Dr. Dio Lewis, 1868 / Walters Art Museum / Public Domain

#ArtStoryLab #EdmoniaLewis #WomenArtists #ArtHistory

[kathy]

I purchased some US postal stamps with a portrait of Edmonia Lewis. Your post is so helpful in understanding her complex life and work. I’m glad I found it. Thank you.

[intendedclient]

Her work is really well crafted. She is one of probably hundreds of notable black women that no one was ever taught about in school. Thank you!

[ericagoncalveslima]

Amazing material and production. Just loved it. Thanks for sharing!

[ladyd]

Ms. Lewis' works are gorgeously rendered in delightful detail.

I purchased the new 58-cent stamp honoring her yesterday. I'm now doing some research on USPS' newest Black Heritage honoree - considering it no longer provides narrative info on its subjects on the back of its stamp sheets...

[AlvaSudden]

"Marmorean" means like marble or alabaster. Doesn't necessarily refer to the way they looked; it may have meant they had an eternal quality, toughness, or that they endured like the classical art they practiced.

[janiaburns]

Lewis's famous sculpture, "The Death of Cleopatra" was founded damaged after being abandoned for years in an old stock yard, after Lewis 's death.
The work was restored and now on exhibition.

[erikat]

This is amazing! I never heard of her. Thank you 🙏🏽 thank you from the bottom of my heart for this educational treasure 😌🥰

[Ejeby]

1:10 wrongful charges: poisoning classmates
4:30 Song Of Hiawatha
6:15 Cleopatra