Edmonia Lewis and the Struggle for Recognition

In 1871, The Art Review, a nineteenth-century American art journal, published an article titled “What American Women Are Doing in Sculpture,” which featured American women sculptors, such as Mary Edmonia Lewis (Wildfire).[1] The article viewed Lewis as a unique sculptor since she was African American and declared her “the only representative of the recently emancipated race.”[2] Lewis was, in fact, descended from both African American and Native American heritage.[3] Her mother was Ojibwa, and her father was an African American descended from the West Indies.[4] Lewis’s parents also named her Wildfire in honor of her Ojibwa heritage.

The Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Bust by Edmonia Lewis, 1871

The journal article only mentioned one of Lewis’ sculptures – a bust of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The bust depicts Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, an American poet whose epic poem “The Song of Hiawatha” inspired Lewis’ sculptures, such as The Marriage of Hiawatha.[5] Longfellow complimented Lewis when he saw the bust of himself – convinced it was one the most realistic likenesses ever created.[6] However, the journal article criticized the bust and considered it evidence “of the general ineptitude of women to succeed” as sculptors. [7] Recognizing its value, Harvard University would purchase an original copy of the bust for its art museum.[8]

The journal article’s author, J. Jackson Jarves, mentioned several other neo-classical sculptures for comparison. For example, Jarves mentioned two sculptors, Thomas Gould and William Wetmore Story, who created neo-classical sculptures of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt.[9] The author praised Gould’s Cleopatra sculpture and stated, “Her face[bore] the impress of a waking dream of voluptuous ecstasy. Passion [overflowed] her features.”[10] Story’s Cleopatra sculpture received praise from Jarves as well, who wrote that “in the light of a beautiful, accomplished, intellectual woman, mistress of pleasure. . .in the full repose of her power.”[11]

Ironically, Lewis created her own neo-classical sculpture of Cleopatra (The Death of Cleopatra) six years later, and it became her most well-known piece.[12]  Lewis’ The Death of Cleopatra depicted Cleopatra at the moment of her suicidal death. The story is that Cleopatra committed suicide by intentionally compelling an asp, a poisonous snake, to bite her.[13] The sculpture presented Cleopatra with her head laid back on her throne while she breathed her last breath—the head of an asp clutched in Cleopatra’s right hand. The sculpture differed from the public’s general expectations that sculptures should be serene without any sign of suffering or death – many preferred Story’s Cleopatra sculpture.[14]  Nevertheless, Lewis’ The Death of Cleopatra won its’ recognition when the sculpture was presented at America’s Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia during 1876.[15]  It is a work that has since solidified her deserved reputation as a great neo-classical sculptor.

The Death of Cleopatra by Edmonia Lewis (Wildfire), 1876

Notes:

[1] J. Jackson Jarves, “What American Women Are Doing in Sculpture,” The Art Review 1, no. 4 (March 1871): 3-4, https://www.jstor.org/stable/20516861.  

[2] Jarves, “What American Women Are Doing in Sculpture,” The Art Review 1, no. 4 (March 1871): 3, https://www.jstor.org/stable/20516861.

[3] William Loren Katz and Paula A. Franklin, “Edmonia Lewis: Sculptor.” Chapter. In Proudly Red and Black: Stories of African and Native Americans. (New York, New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1993), 39-40.

[4] Zaria Ware, “Edmonia Lewis: The Self-Taught Sculptor Turned Celebrity (c. 1844-1907).” Section. In BLK Art: The Audacious Legacy of Black Artists and Models in Western Art. (New York, New York: Harper Design, 2023), 165.

[5] Rinna Evelyn Wolfe, Edmonia Lewis: Wildfire in Marble, (Parsippany, New Jersey: Dillon Press, 1998), 73-80.

[6] Wolfe, Edmonia Lewis: Wildfire in Marble, of A People in Focus Book (Parsippany, New Jersey: Dillon Press, 1998), 80.

[7] Jarves, “What American Women Are Doing in Sculpture,” 3

[8] Wolfe, Edmonia Lewis: Wildfire in Marble, 80.

[9] Jarves, “What American Women Are Doing in Sculpture,” 4.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Wolfe, Edmonia Lewis: Wildfire in Marble, 93-97.

[13] Wolfe, Edmonia Lewis: Wildfire in Marble, 96.

[14] Ibid, 99.

[15] Ibid, 93.

References:

Jarves, J. Jackson. “What American Women Are Doing in Sculpture.” The Art Review 1, no. 4 (March 1871): 3–4. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20516861.

Katz, William Loren, and Paula A. Franklin. “Edmonia Lewis: Sculptor.” Chapter. In Proudly Red and Black: Stories of African and Native Americans, 37–48. New York, New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1993.

Ware, Zaria. “Edmonia Lewis: The Self-Taught Sculptor Turned Celebrity (c. 1844-1907).” Section. In BLK Art: The Audacious Legacy of Black Artists and Models in Western Art, 164–75. New York, New York: Harper Design, 2023.

Wolfe, Rinna Evelyn. Edmonia Lewis: Wildfire in Marble. Parsippany, New Jersey: Dillon Press, 1998.