1. Edmonia Lewis was the first African-American and Native American sculptor to achieve national and then international prominence.
49 Facts About Edmonia Lewis
1. 2.
Edmonia Lewis began to gain prominence in the United States during the Civil War; at the end of the 19th century, she remained the only Black woman artist who had participated in and been recognized to any extent by the American artistic mainstream.
3.
Edmonia Lewis's work is known for incorporating themes relating to Black people and indigenous peoples of the Americas into Neoclassical-style sculpture.
4.
The first is Samuel Edmonia Lewis, who was Afro-Haitian and worked as a valet.
5.
Samuel's endeavors in the California gold rush proved successful, and by the time Edmonia Lewis got to college, he "supplied her every want to anticipate her wishes after the style and manner of a person of ample income".
6.
In 1856, Edmonia Lewis enrolled in a pre-college program at New York Central College, a Baptist abolitionist school in McGrawville.
7.
Edmonia Lewis's classes included Latin, French, "grammar", arithmetic, drawing, composition, and declamation.
8.
In 1859, when Edmonia Lewis was about 15 years old, her brother Samuel and abolitionists sent her to Oberlin, Ohio, where she attended the secondary Oberlin Academy Preparatory School for the full, three-year course, before entering Oberlin Collegiate Institute, one of the first US higher-learning institutions to admit women and people of differing ethnicities.
9.
Edmonia Lewis boarded with Reverend John Keep and his wife from 1859 until she was forced from the college in 1863.
10.
At Oberlin, with a student population of one thousand, Edmonia Lewis was one of only 30 students of color.
11.
About a year after the poisoning trial, Edmonia Lewis was accused of stealing artists' materials from the college.
12.
Edmonia Lewis repeatedly told a story about encountering in Boston a statue of Benjamin Franklin, not knowing what it was or what to call it, but concluding she could make a "stone man" herself.
13.
Edmonia Lewis introduced her to already established sculptors in the area, as well as writers who publicized Lewis in the abolitionist press.
14.
Edmonia Lewis's clients were some of the most important abolitionists of the day, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Wm.
15.
Edmonia Lewis opened her studio to the public with her first solo exhibition in 1864.
16.
Edmonia Lewis was inspired by the lives of abolitionists and Civil War heroes.
17.
Edmonia Lewis then made plaster-cast reproductions of the bust and sold one hundred of these copies at 15 dollars apiece.
18.
From 1864 to 1871, Edmonia Lewis was written about or interviewed by Lydia Maria Child, Elizabeth Peabody, Anna Quincy Waterston, and Laura Curtis Bullard, all important women in Boston and New York abolitionist circles.
19.
Edmonia Lewis was not opposed to the coverage she received in the abolitionist press, and she was not known to turn down financial assistance, but she could not tolerate false praise.
20.
Edmonia Lewis knew that some did not really appreciate her art, but saw her as an opportunity to demonstrate their support for human rights.
21.
Edmonia Lewis drew inspiration from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his work, particularly his epic poem The Song of Hiawatha.
22.
Edmonia Lewis made several busts of its leading characters, for whom he had drawn on Ojibwe legend.
23.
The success and popularity of the works she created in Boston allowed Edmonia Lewis to bear the cost of a trip to Rome in 1866.
24.
Edmonia Lewis entered a circle of expatriate artists and established her own space within the former studio of 18th-century Italian sculptor Antonio Canova, just off the Piazza Barberini.
25.
Edmonia Lewis received professional support from both Charlotte Cushman, a Boston actress and a pivotal figure for expatriate sculptors in Rome, and Maria Weston Chapman, a dedicated worker for the anti-slavery cause.
26.
Edmonia Lewis spent most of her adult career in Rome, where Italy's less pronounced racism allowed increased opportunity to a black artist.
27.
Edmonia Lewis was Catholic and Rome allowed her both spiritual and physical closeness to her faith.
28.
Edmonia Lewis began sculpting in marble, working within the neoclassical manner, but focusing on naturalism within themes and images relating to black and American Indian people.
29.
Edmonia Lewis wears a red cap in her studio, which is very picturesque and effective; her face is a bright, intelligent, and expressive one.
30.
Edmonia Lewis's manners are child-like, simple and most winning and pleasing.
31.
Edmonia Lewis was unique in the way she approached sculpting abroad.
32.
Edmonia Lewis was known to make sculptures before receiving commissions for them, or sent unsolicited works to Boston patrons requesting that they raise funds for materials and shipping.
33.
Edmonia Lewis had many major exhibitions during her rise to fame, including one in Chicago, Illinois, in 1870, and in Rome in 1871.
34.
In 1872, Edmonia Lewis was summoned to Peterboro, New York, to sculpt wealthy abolitionist Gerrit Smith, a project conceived by his friends.
35.
Smith was not pleased and what Edmonia Lewis completed was a sculpture of the clasped hands of Gerrit and his beloved wife Ann.
36.
In Death of Cleopatra, Edmonia Lewis added an innovative flair by portraying the Egyptian queen in a disheveled, inelegant manner, a departure from the refined, composed Victorian approach to representing death.
37.
Edmonia Lewis sat for her as a model and was pleased with her finished piece.
38.
Edmonia Lewis contributed a bust of Massachusetts abolitionist senator Charles Sumner to the 1895 Atlanta Exposition.
39.
Edmonia Lewis continued sculpting in marble, increasingly creating altarpieces and other works for Catholic patrons.
40.
Edmonia Lewis then relocated to the Hammersmith area of London, England, before her death on September 17,1907, in the Hammersmith Borough Infirmary.
41.
Edmonia Lewis is buried in St Mary's Catholic Cemetery, in London.
42.
In 2017, a GoFundMe by East Greenbush, New York, town historian Bobbie Reno was successful, and Edmonia Lewis's grave was restored.
43.
Edmonia Lewis had to balance her own personal identity with her artistic, social, and national identity, a tiring activity that affected her art.
44.
Edmonia Lewis prospered, eventually investing in commercial real estate, and subsequently built his own home which still stands at 308 South Bozeman Avenue.
45.
In 1999 the Samuel Edmonia Lewis House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
46.
The elder Edmonia Lewis died after "a short illness" in 1896 and is buried in Sunset Hills Cemetery in Bozeman.
47.
Forever Free is a sculpture Edmonia Lewis created in 1867, commemorating the abolition of slavery in the United States two years earlier and takes its title from President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.
48.
Edmonia Lewis had a tendency to sculpt historically strong women, as demonstrated not just in Hagar but in Edmonia Lewis's Cleopatra piece.
49.
Edmonia Lewis depicted ordinary women in extreme situations, emphasizing their strength.