Edmonia Lewis

(b New York, 1845; d after 1911). American sculptor. Born to an African-American father and a American Indian mother, she was the first Black American sculptor to achieve national prominence. During her early childhood she travelled with her family in the Chippewa tribe, by whom she was known as Wildfire. At 12 she attended school at Albany, NY (1857-9), then a liberal arts course at Oberlin College, OH (1860-63). Lewis then went to Boston (1863) to study with Edward Brackett (1818-1908) and Anne Whitney. Her medallion of the abolitionist John Browne and a bust of the Civil War hero Col. Robert Shaw were exhibited at the Soldiers' Relief Fair (1864), Boston; the latter sold over 100 plaster copies, enabling Lewis to travel to Rome (1865). There she was introduced to the White Marmorean Flock, a group of women sculptors, including Harriet Hosmer and Emma Stebbins, who worked in a Neo-classical style. Examples of Lewis's own work include Forever Free (1867; Washington, DC, Howard U., Gal. A.), a depiction of a slave breaking his bonds and several sculptures evoking her American Indian heritage, inspired by the Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, such as Minnehaha (1867; Detroit, MI, Inst. A.). Notably successful was Hagar (1875; Washington, DC, N. Mus. Amer. A.; see AFRICAN AMERICAN ART, fig. 1), portraying the servant of Abraham cast into the wilderness by his wife, Sarah. Many of her works are in the National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

sculptor

Personal Information

Born Mary Edmonia Lewis, or "Wildflower," c. 1843, in either Greenhigh, OH, or Greenbush, NY; died c. 1911; daughter of a "gentlemen's servant."
Education: Attended Oberlin College, 1859-62.
Religion: Catholic.

Career

Sculptor, 1863-c. 1900; sculptures include "Forever Free" (1867); "Hagar" (1869); "The Old Indian Arrowmaker and His Daughter" (1872); "Asleep" and "Awake" (1874); and "The Death of Cleopatra" (1875); work showed at numerous exhibitions, including Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, 1876, and Chicago Exhibition, 1878, as well as in Boston, San Francisco, and San Jose, CA; worked on commission for many churches and private collectors.

Life's Work

It is impressive enough that Edmonia Lewis managed to make herself into a successful artist with virtually no formal training; that she did so in the racist, sexist climate of the middle to late nineteenth century is truly remarkable. The child of an African American father and Native American mother, Lewis labored under a dense cloud of discrimination throughout her career. Despite the obstacles she faced, Lewis was able to leave a legacy as an important sculptor of the neo-classical style popular during part of the 1800s. Although her name fell into an obscurity that lasted for much of the twentieth century, the feminist and civil rights movements of the last few decades have given rise to a renewed interest in Lewis's work.

Accounts of Edmonia Lewis's life, especially the early part, are somewhat sketchy, and there is quite a bit of contradiction as to the details. She was probably born in either 1843 or 1845. July 4 and July 14 are among the dates listed in various sources. Lewis was most likely born in either Greenbush (near Albany), New York, or in Greenhigh, Ohio. Her father was of African American descent. In interviews, Lewis described him as "a gentlemen's servant." Her mother was a member of the Mississauga band of Chippewa Indians.Lewis spent her early childhood among her mother's people, who knew the girl as "Wildfire." Both of her parents died before she was ten years old. Wildfire and her brother, "Sunrise," were placed in the custody of two aunts. Living near the Canadian border around Niagra Falls, New York, the family hunted and fished. They also sold handmade moccasins, baskets, and other goods to tourists.

Sometime during the 1850s, Sunrise headed west to seek his fortune in the Gold Rush. He returned several years later with a tidy sum of money and encouraged Edmonia to seek an education, which he would support financially. After a brief stint at a prep school near Albany, Edmonia enrolled in Ohio's Oberlin College. Oberlin was one of the first institutions to admit both blacks and women, and the town itself had a history of racial tolerance, having served as a stopping point for slaves fleeing to the North.

After three relatively uneventful years at Oberlin, where she studied a general liberal arts curriculum, an incident took place that changed Lewis's life: in 1862 two white girls who boarded in the same house as Lewis accused her of trying to poison them. Although Lewis was acquitted of the crime--with the assistance of prominent African American lawyer John Mercer Langston--she was brutally beaten by vigilantes and tormented by verbal attacks for the rest of her stay in Oberlin. She was also accused of minor thefts at the school. Oberlin's administrators finally succumbed to local pressure, and the following year they refused to allow Lewis to enroll for classes. Demoralized, Lewis left Oberlin without graduating.

By about 1863 Lewis had become interested in sculpture, though she had no practical experience working in the form. Armed only with a letter of introduction to well-known abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, Lewis arrived in Boston to pursue an art career. Garrison in turn introduced her to Edward Brackett, a successful sculptor of the era. Brackett provided Lewis with pieces of sculpture to replicate in clay, and he critiqued her earliest works.

With only this informal training, Lewis hung out a shingle at a studio rented by her brother and began soliciting work. During this first phase of her career, Lewis produced mainly medallion portraits of Civil War heroes and abolitionist leaders. Around 1865 Lewis made her first bust. Its subject, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, was a white officer who had led an all-black regiment into battle against the South. Gould had died in battle and subsequently become something of a folk hero among Yankee liberals. Lewis was able to sell about 100 plaster copies of the bust. Those sales financed her move later that year to Rome, which was a major hub of activity for expatriate American sculptors at the time.

In Rome Lewis was part of a large community of women sculptors that included Harriet Hosmer, Emma Stebbins, Margaret Foley, and Anne Whitney. There she learned to cut marble and practiced by copying classical statues. She adopted the most popular style of the time, neo-classical, which emphasized pure beauty of form over content. Like the other women sculptors in the Roman colony, Lewis was able to live relatively free of the behavioral constraints that existed in the more puritanical cities of the United States.

Nevertheless, Lewis did not fit in entirely with the other artists in Rome, partly due to her general distrust of people. Unlike most of her contemporaries, Lewis shunned formal instruction, choosing instead to rely on her instinctive abilities. This was as much a function of her financial need to produce sellable pieces quickly as it was an artistic decision. While some of the more established sculptors in Rome hired assistants to carve the final marble pieces, Lewis carved every piece herself out of fear that her work would otherwise be considered illegitimate.

Lewis's most reliable sources of income were copies of classics sold to tourists and small portrait busts commissioned by wealthy liberal Bostonians. Even as her technical ability blossomed, subtle forms of racism limited the acceptance of her work. Jealous rivals sometimes attributed whatever minor successes she had to the novelty of her race. Some buyers did not believe that a black person could produce art of such a high caliber and insisted on watching her work before acknowledging its authenticity.

Lewis's popularity peaked during the late 1860s and 1870s. Her studio became a common stop for tourists interested in sculpture. Her work also began to command higher prices. Her occasional trips back to the United States during this period were also received enthusiastically. She exhibited her work in Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and San Jose, California. Among her successful works during this phase of her career were "Forever Free" (1867), a celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation; "Hagar in the Wilderness" (1868), an image of an Egyptian handmaiden; and "The Old Arrow Maker and His Daughter" (1872), an Indian group sculpture. In these works, Lewis embraced both parts of her heritage, rejecting the common stereotypes of the day. In particular, she was one of the few artists of the time whose work portrayed Indians as anything but savages. Many of Lewis's most famous pieces were also influenced by her 1868 conversion to Catholicism, and churches became some of her best customers.

The story of Lewis's 1875 sculpture "The Death of Cleopatra" is especially interesting and symbolic of her career as a whole. More realistic than her previous sculptures, "The Death of Cleopatra" marked a rare departure from her usual neo-classical style. Lewis shipped the sculpture to the United States for the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, where it garnered more attention than any other statue. It was similarly received at the Chicago Exposition two years later. After the Chicago Exposition, it was impractical for Lewis to ship the piece back to Rome, and it is unclear what became of it. The work was considered lost for more than a century.

It was finally identified in 1989 by members of the Forest Park (a Chicago suburb) Historical Society. Apparently, "The Death of Cleopatra" had been acquired by "Blind John" Condon, the owner of the Harlem Race Track in what is now Forest Park. He placed the statue on the grave of Cleopatra, his favorite horse. It remained there as the racetrack gave way to a golf course, then to a munitions plant. When a U.S. Postal Service facility was built on the site in 1972, the statue was finally carted off to the construction contractor's equipment yard. It was discovered there in the mid-1970s by a fireman named Harold Adams, who had it moved to a safer location. The Historical Society undertook its restoration in 1987, and its president, Frank Orland, finally gleaned the statue's identity two years later.

In the 1880s, neo-classical sculpture fell out of vogue as the expressive Romantic style championed by the likes of Auguste Rodin gained popularity. Paris replaced Rome as the center of artistic activity, and Edmonia Lewis faded from view. Not much is known of the last years of her life. Her last major commission was from a Baltimore church for a sculpture titled "Adoration of the Magi" in 1883. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass recorded in his diary an 1887 meeting with Lewis in Rome. The Rosary, an American Catholic magazine, reported that she was still alive as late as 1909. How she lived during that period remains unclear, and there is no known record of her death or burial.

More than 100 years after the prime of her career, Edmonia Lewis holds a place in the pantheon of artists that transcends race and gender. While she was active, she was frequently known as "that Negro artist" or "that woman artist" by admirers and detractors alike, drawing attention away from her skill. Only a fraction of her work has survived, but the respect that work now commands testifies that Lewis's talents defied the petty suspicions and biases of her critics.

Awards

Gold medal, Naples exposition, for "Asleep."

Further Reading

Books

• Bearden, Romare, and Harry Henderson, A History of African-American Artists, Pantheon, 1993.
• Perry, Regenia A., Free Within Ourselves: African-American Artists in the Collection of the National Museum of American Art, Pomegranate, 1992.
• Tufts, Eleanor, Our Hidden Heritage: Five Centuries of Women Artists, Paddington Press, 1974.

• Art in America, July 1974, pp. 70-71.
• Journal of Negro History, July 1968, pp. 201-18.

— Robert R. Jacobson

Edmonia Lewis
Edmonia Lewis
Birth name	Mary Edmonia Lewis
Born	July 4, 1845(1845-07-04) Albany, New York
Died	1911 Rome, Italy
Nationality	American
Field	Sculpture
Training	Oberlin College
Movement	Neoclassicism
Patrons	Ulysses S. Grant
Influenced by	Edmund Brackett

Mary Edmonia Lewis (ca. July 4, 1845 – ca. 1911) was the first African American and Native American woman to gain fame and recognition as a sculptor in the international fine arts world. She was of African American, Haitian and Ojibwe descent.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life and education 1.2 Incident at Oberlin College 2 Art career 3 Death 4 Her Work 4.1 Descriptions of most popular works 4.2 List of major, known artworks 4.3 Posthumous exhibits 5 Notes 6 References 7 External links 8 Additional reading

Biography

Early life and education

Her passport reads Mary Edmonia Lewis, born in July 1845 in Albany, New York, although the exact date of her birth is uncertain. Her inspiration for much her artwork came from her ethnic background. Lewis' father was Haitian of African descent, while her mother was of Mississauga Ojibwe and African descent.^[1] Lewis’ mother was known as an excellent weaver and craftswoman.^[2]

When Lewis was around nine years old, both of her parents died within a year of each other.^[3] Lewis and her older brother, Samuel, lived with their mother’s sisters for the next three years. Lewis and her aunts sold Ojibwe baskets and other crafts to tourists visiting Niagara Falls, Toronto, and Buffalo.^[4] Samuel became a successful businessman and gold prospector and paid for her tuition to the New York Central College.^[4] Lewis was rebellious and did not learn English well, so Samuel suggested she transfer to Oberlin College, outside Cleveland, Ohio.^[5]

At the time, Oberlin College was one of the first higher learning institutions in the United States to admit women and different races. Lewis' decision to attend Oberlin was one that would significantly change her life, as that is where Lewis began her art studies. ^[6]

Incident at Oberlin College

During the winter season of 1862, several months after the start of the Civil War, while Edmonia Lewis attended Oberlin College, an incident involved her and two classmates, Maria Miles and Christina Ennes. The three women planned to go sleigh riding later that day. Lewis invited her friends to her home for a drink. Shortly after, Miles and Ennes fell severely ill. Doctors concluded that the two women had some sort of poison in their system and were not sure if they would survive. Days later, it was apparent that the two women would recover from the incident, and, because of their recovery, the authorities took no action.

However, townspeople took matters in their own hands. Walking home alone one night, Lewis was dragged into an open field and badly beaten.^[7] Those responsible for her injuries were never found.^[8] Due to the attack, local authorities arrested Lewis, charging her with poisoning her friends. The college defended their student throughout the trial. John Mercer Langston, an Oberlin College alumnus, and only practicing African-American lawyer in Oberlin, represented Lewis during her trial. Although most witnesses spoke against Lewis and Lewis did not testify, Langston did an excellent job. Lewis was found not guilty of the charges.^[7]

Art career

Minnehaha, marble, 1868, collection of the Newark Museum

After college, Lewis moved to Boston late in 1863.^[9] She began to study under a well-known sculptor, Edward Augustus Brackett. Under his tutelage, Lewis crafted her own sculpting tools and sold her first piece, a sculpture of a woman’s hand, for $8.^[10]{ She opened her studio to the public in her first solo exhibit in 1864.^[11]

She found inspiration in the lives of Abolitionists and Civil War heroes. Lewis met Union Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the commander of an African American Civil War regiment from Massachusetts. She was inspired to create a bust of his likeness, which impressed the Shaw family, who purchased her homage.^[12] Poet Anna Quincy Waterston was inspired to write a poem about both Lewis and Shaw.^[13]

Early works that proved highly popular included medallion portraits of the abolitionists John Brown and William Lloyd Garrison. Lewis also drew inspiration from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his work, particularly his epic poem, "The Song of Hiawatha"

Lewis was determined to study in Rome and sailed there in 1865.^[14][6] Established sculptor Hiram Powers gave Lewis space in his studio.^[14] She entered a circle of expatriate artists and established her own space within the former studio of 18th-century Italian sculptor Antonio Canova.^[15]

Rome was where Lewis spent most of her adult career. Her studies there contributed to her neoclassical techniques and subject matter. The surroundings of the classical world greatly inspired Lewis and influenced her work. Lewis recreated the classical art style in her own work. For instance, she presented people in her sculptures as draped in robes rather than in contemporary clothing.^[16]

Her work sold for large sums of money. In 1873 an article in the New Orleans Picayune stated, “Edmonia Lewis had snared two 50,000 dollar commissions.” Her new-found popularity made her studio a tourist destination.^[17] Lewis had many major exhibitions during her rise to fame, including one in Chicago, Illinois in 1870, and in Rome in 1871.^[6]

A major coup in her career was participating in the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.^[18] For this, she created a monumental 3,015-pound marble sculpture, The Death of Cleopatra, which dramatically portrayed the queen in the throes of death.^[19] Of the piece, J. S. Ingraham wrote that Cleopatra was “the most remarkable piece of sculpture in the American section” of the Exposition.^[20] Much of the viewing public was shocked by Lewis’ frank portrayal of death, but the statue drew thousands of viewers.^[21] After being placed in storage, the statue was lost. After 120 years, it was discovered in a Sotheby’s auction. After authentication, it was donated to the Smithsonian American Art Museum.^[22]

A testament to Lewis' renown as an artist came in 1877, when former US President Ulysses S. Grant commissioned her to do his portrait. He sat for her as a model and was pleased with her finished piece.^[23]

In the late 1880s, the neoclassical genre became less popular, and Lewis's popularity also declined. She continued to work in marble, increasingly creating altarpieces and other works for Roman Catholic patrons. In the art world, she became eclipsed by history and lost fame. The events of her later years are not known.^[6]

Death

The exact year of Edmonia Lewis’ death in uncertain. Records state she was still alive in 1909, and in 1911 she was seen in Rome. It is believed she died in Rome. An alternative view holds that she died in Marin County, California and was buried in an unmarked grave in San Francisco.^[24] Lewis never married and had no known children.^[25] In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Edmonia Lewis on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.^[26]

Her Work

Descriptions of most popular works

Hiawatha, marble, 1868, Newark Museum

Forever Free, 1867
This sculpture is of white marble. It represents a man standing, staring up, and raising his left arm into the air. Wrapped around his left wrist is a chain; however, this chain is not restraining him. To his right is a woman kneeling with her hands held in a prayer position. The man’s right hand is gently placed on her right shoulder. Forever Free represents the emancipation of African-American slaves after the Civil War. Lewis attempted to break stereotypes of African-American women with this sculpture. For example, Lewis portrayed the woman as completely dressed while the man was partially dressed. This drew attention away from the notion of African-American women being sexual figures. This sculpture also symbolizes the end of the Civil War. While African Americans were technically free, they continued to be restrained, shown by the fact that the couple had chains wrapped around their bodies. This piece is held by Howard University Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. ^[27]

Hagar, 1875
Inspired by a character from the Old Testament, this was made of white marble. It shows Hagar with her hands in prayer and staring slightly up but not straight across. The Egyptian wife of Abraham, Hagar gave birth to his first son Ishmael. Abraham’s second wife, Sarah, resented Hagar and “cast Hagar into the wilderness after the birth Sarah’s son Isaac.” Lewis uses Hagar to symbolize the African mother in the United States. She represented the abuse of African women. Lewis had a tendency to sculpt historically strong women. We see this not just in Hagar but also in Lewis's Cleopatra piece. Lewis also depicted regular women in great situations, emphasizing their strength.^[25]

Old Arrow-Maker and his Daughter, 1866
This sculpture was inspired by Lewis's Native American heritage. An arrow-maker and his daughter sit on a round base. They are dressed in traditional Native American clothes and have recognizable Native American facial features. Lewis pushed the limits with the accuracy of her sculptures. Lewis never generalized the appearance of those she sculpted. Instead, she found truth in the particular and used that in her work. She wanted to be as realistic as possible.^[25]

List of major, known artworks

• John Brown medallions, 1864-5
• Colonel Robert Gould Shaw (plaster), 1864
• Anne Quincy Waterston, 1866
• A Freed Woman and Her Child, 1866
• The Old Arrow-Maker and His Daughter, 1866
• The Marriage of Hiawatha, 1866-7
• Forever Free, 1867
• Colonel Robert Gould Shaw (marble), 1867-8
• Hagar in the Wilderness, 1868
• Madonna Holding the Christ Child, 1869
• Hiawatha, 1868^[28]
• Minnehaha, 1868^[28]
• Henry Wordsworth Longfellow, 1869-1871
• bust of Abraham Lincoln, 1870
• Asleep, 1872
• Awake, 1872
• Poor Cupid, 1873
• Moses, 1873
• Hygieia, 1874
• Hagar, 1875
• Death of Cleopatra, 1876
• John Brown, 1876, Rome (plaster bust)
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1876, Rome (plaster bust)
• General Ulysses S. Grant, 1877-1878
• Veiled Bride of Spring 1878
• John Brown, 1878-1879
• The Adoration of the Magi, 1883^[29]

Posthumous exhibits

• Art of the American Negro Exhibition, Chicago, 1940
• Howard University, Washington D.C., 1967
• Vassar College, New York, 1972
• Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, 2008

Notes

1. ^ Wolfe, 12
2. ^ Wolfe, 15
3. ^ Wolfe, 18
4. ^ ^{a b} Wolfe, 19
5. ^ Wolfe, 20
6. ^ ^{a b c d} Plowden, Martha W. "Edmonia Lewis-Sculptor." Famous Firsts of Black Women. Gretna: Pelican Company, 1994.
7. ^ ^{a b} Katz, William L. and Paula A. Franklin. "Edmonia Lewis: Sculptor." Proudly Red and Black. New York: Maxwell Macmillan, 1993.
8. ^ Woods, Naurice F. "Mary Edmonia Lewis." Insuperable Obstacles. Cincinnati: Union Institute Graduate School, 1993
9. ^ Wolfe, 41
10. ^ Wolfe, 43
11. ^ Wolfe, 44
12. ^ Wolfe, 46-9
13. ^ Wolfe, 49
14. ^ ^{a b} Wolfe, 53
15. ^ Wolfe, 55
16. ^ Lewis, Samella. "The Diverse Quests for Professional Statues" in African American Art and Artists. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
17. ^ Tufts, Eleanor. "The Nineteenth Century", Our Hidden Heritage. New York: Paddington P, 1974.
18. ^ Wolfe, 93
19. ^ Wolfe, 97, 102
20. ^ Wolfe, 97-99
21. ^ Wolfe, 100
22. ^ Wolfe, 102-105
23. ^ Wolfe, 108-109
24. ^ Wolfe, 110
25. ^ ^{a b c} Perry, Regenia A. "Edmonia Lewis", Free Within Ourselves. Washington D.C.: National Museum of American Art, 1992.
26. ^ Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). 100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, New York. Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-963-8.
27. ^ Collins, Lisa G. "Female Body in Art." The Art of History. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2002.
28. ^ ^{a b} According to the Newark Museum; 1869-1871, according to Wolfe, 120
29. ^ Wolfe, 120

References

• Collins, Lisa G. "Female Body in Art." The Art of History. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2002.
• Katz, William L., and Paula A. Franklin. "Edmonia Lewis: Sculptor." Proudly Red and Black. New York: Maxwell Macmillan, 1993.
• Lewis, Samella. "The Diverse Quests for Professional Statues" in African American Art and Artists. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
• Perry, Regenia A. "Edmonia Lewis." Free Within Ourselves. Washington D.C.: National Museum of American Art, 1992.
• Plowden, Martha W. "Edmonia Lewis-Sculptor." Famous Firsts of Black Women. Gretna: Pelican Company, 1994.
• Tufts, Eleanor. "The Nineteenth Century." Our Hidden Heritage. New York: Paddington Press, 1974.
• Wolfe, Rinna Evelyn. ‘’Edmonia Lewis: Wildfire in Marble.’’ Parsippany, New Jersey, 1998. ISBN 0-382-39714-2.
• Woods, Naurice F. "Mary Edmonia Lewis." Insuperable Obstacles. Cincinnati: Union Institute Graduate School, 1993.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Edmonia Lewis

• Edmonia Lewis at www.edmonialewis.com
• Edmonia Lewis biography at www.lkwdpl.org
• "Edmonia Lewis, African American and Native American Sculptor", womenshistory.about.com
• "The Object at Hand", Smithsonian Magazine

Additional reading

• Richardson, Marilyn. "Vita: Edmonia Lewis." Harvard Magazine, 1986.
• Richardson, Marilyn, "Edmonia Lewis." American National Biography, National Council of Learned Societies, 1999.
• Richardson, Marilyn, "Edmonia Lewis." Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History" Columbia University, 1996.

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