Edmonia Lewis (1845-1911)

Aliases: Mary Lewis; Wildfire

Professions: Sculptor

• 

  

  Edmonia Lewis (circa 1843-after 1909) , The Old Arrow Maker white marble

• 

  

  *EDMONIA LEWIS (B. 1843/45) THE OLD INDIAN ARROW MAKER AND HIS DAUGHTER inscribed and dated Ms. Edmonia Lewis Roma 1866 and EDMONIA LEWIS ROMA.1866; also titled

• 

  

  ATTRIBUTED TO EDMONIA LEWIS [AMERICAN 1845-1911],

• 

  

  Bust of Minnehaha by Edmonia Lewis, African American Sculptor,

• Edmonia Lewis Related Content
• Edmonia Lewis Sold at Auction

Edmonia Lewis Biography

(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.

Back to the Top

Edmonia Lewis Related Content

• Auction Houses

  Genres/Artists

• Featured Houses (2)

  • DuMouchelles
  • Skinner
  • Other Houses (4)
  • Christie's
  • Cowan's Auctions
  • Hy. Duke & Son
  • Sotheby's

• American Sculpture, 19th Century (14)

  • Thomas Crawford
  • Daniel Chester French
  • Horatio Greenough
  • Harriet Goodhue Hosmer
  • Chauncey Bradley Ives
  • Hiram Powers
  • Alexander Phimister Proctor
  • Frederic Sackrider Remington
  • William Henry Rinehart
  • Randolph Rogers
  • William Rush
  • Augustus Saint-Gaudens
  • Emma Stebbins
  • John Quincy Adams Ward

Back to the Top