Edmonia Lewis

In honor of April being women's history month I would like to introduce you all to Edmonia Lewis (1844-1907).  She was part African American and part Native American, but more importantly she was a sculptress.  She lost her parents at an early age, and was brought up by her Native American aunts.  She was allowed to run wild, and when she was eventually sent to a girls' school she was deemed to be to wild for them to handle.





She then went on to Oberlin College.  At any rate she studied art while there, but she did not have an easy go of it.  The college had accepted her, but the community at large had not.  From there she went to Boston to pursue further education in sculpting.  While in Boston she sculpted a bust of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.  It was the success of this piece that allowed her to move to Rome to continue studies. 



While in Rome Hiram Powers allowed her to work in his studio space.  She focused primarily on African American and Native American subject matter at this point in her life; representing them in neoclassical style.  She was very successful in Rome, and her work fetched high prices.



Perhaps her most famous work was the Death of Cleopatra.