EDMONIA LEWIS 

   Edmonia Lewis (c) A. Henderson      

 

NOW AVAILABLE: The Indomitable Spirit of Edmonia Lewis. A Narrative Biography,  by Harry Henderson ( co-author of A History of African American Art from 1792 to the Present) and Albert Henderson, winner of the eLit GOLD award: "Illuminating Digital Publishing Excellence." Independent Opinion:  "The Hendersons’ monument of research and craftsmanship seeks to give Lewis the consideration that she has been denied—not dissimilar to the artist’s own commitment to proving her competitors and critics wrong, demonstrating that a minority could take on the hegemonic tradition of fine arts. The book provides crystalline accounts of Lewis’s feuds and mentorships, as well as rich illustrations of the works being discussed throughout. Overall, the authors deliver a well-constructed mix of primary resources, critical analysis and literary flourishes." - Kirkus Reviews. "Thank you so much for your excellent research ... Your work on Edmonia Lewis will be used for many years to come by scholars, art historians, art collectors and anyone interested in knowing more about this outstanding woman"  - Dr. Sheryl Colyer.  "Lewis’s story is all at once interesting and sad. Her life, while forgotten for a while is now making a come back among art historians and this immense work helps to secure her artistic legacy." Lifelong Dewey   "A key acquisition for any arts or African-American history holding. The authors' attention to precise scholarship provides all the details of a solid linear history and biography but the end result is anything but dry: it reads with the passion and drama of good literature." Midwest Book Review  "A definitive biography" Washington Times  "5.0 of 5 stars" - Goodreads

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Links - images, museums, galleries, articles, videos, etc.

New 2013: The Walters Art Museum of Baltimore has announced the discovery of a new portrait photograph of Edmonia Lewis taken in Rome around 1874-1876. By this time she had become an international symbol of 'colored' achievement. The Walters also owns a copy of her bust of Dio Lewis (find link below). Congratulations to Jacqueline Copeland for the discovery and verification. Read the press release here.

The cover of The Indomitable Spirit of Edmonia Lewis is based on a portrait appearing in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. Leslie visited Edmonia Lewis in Rome in 1867, shortly after the World's Fair in Paris. This engraving, probably based on a photo, is the earliest known likeness.

The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Montgomery AL spotlights an 1868 carving of Hiawatha's Marriage, one of Edmonia Lewis's most successful images. The web site includes a comparison by curator Michael W. Panhorst of the six known versions of the Marriage, which are not identical, and a commentary on Lewis's art. 

America Meredith, a member of the Cherokee Nation, painted this portrait of Edmonia Lewis, which is now in the permanent collection of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma, Norman OK. She wrote that she talks about Lewis "at the beginnings of Native American art history classes, because she subverts all proposed narratives and she's one of the first Native artists to succeed in the international arts arena."

Edmonia Lewis's carte de visite, taken in 1870, is one of the displays of the Smithsonian Institution's traveling exhibit, Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits.

For Black History Month, 2012, the Washington Post highlighted the Death of Cleopatra at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, in Washington DC.

The newly opened Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas, includes a copy of The Old Arrow Maker. Plan your visit and reserve tickets here.

Cleveland Museum of Art acquired a scene from Edmonia Lewis's Native American roots last seen at auction: Three American Indians in Battle a/k/a  Indians Wrestling or Indian Combat.   (No title is inscribed.) sold at Gabriel's, Nov. 2010.  

A portrait of James P. Thomas, who went from Tennessee slave to St. Louis Entrepreneur, is at Oberlin College. Photo by Christopher Busta-Peck.

Photographs by Christopher Busta-Peck of Rebekah, 1880, or Rebecca at the Well  (private collection).  SIRIS describes a similar Rebecca at the Well dated 1871. 

In 2011, researcher Holly Solano discovered this antique photo of the lost Adoration of the Magi (1883) in a Baltimore MD church.

Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art will provide a permanent home for the Walter O. Evans Center for African American Studies, including The Wooing of Hiawatha  (Old Arrow Maker) by Edmonia Lewis.  

Stark Museum of Art, Orange, TX, shows a copy of Hiawatha's Marriage carved in 1874.

High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Ga., received a gift of Columbus, a rare carving depicting an explorer and a young Native American woman, attributed to Edmonia Lewis. The pose follows Forever Free.

Smithsonian American Art Museum panorama including The Death of Cleopatra, Moses, Hagar in the Wilderness, The Old Arrowmaker and His Daughter (The Wooing of Hiawatha), Poor Cupid, and a photo portrait of the artist.

In Alabama, the Legacy Museum at Tuskegee University calls its Edmonia Lewis masterpieces the sine quibus non of its collection.

Luce Foundation Center for American Art, Edmonia Lewis in Italy (video).

Edmonia Lewis Sculptures, wonderfully detailed photographs by Christopher Busta-Peck.

Bust of a Woman in peasant dress (contadina) was seen N'Namdi Gallery -- now the N'Namdi Center for Contemporary Art in Detroit. 

Denise Ward Brown, "Mary Edmonia Lewis -- Female Sculptor. (video)

Doreen Bolger presents Baltimore Museum of Art's African American Artist Collection (video).

 

EARLY SCULPTURES MODELED 1864-1867

Bust of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw at the Museum of African American History in Boston MA. marble copy of Edmonia's first celebrated portrait. A photo of the 1864 plaster bust appears in The Indomitable Spirit of Edmonia Lewis.    

Bust of Maria Weston Chapman (1865) Weymouth (MA) Public Library. 

Bust of Dioclesian Lewis Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD.

For all known descriptions of Edmonia Lewis's first ideal group, The Freedwoman on First Hearing of Her Liberty (1866; lost) The Indomitable Spirit of Edmonia Lewis.

The Marriage of Hiawatha at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts;  

The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Montgomery AL spotlights an 1868 carving of Hiawatha's Marriage, one of Edmonia Lewis's most successful images. The web site includes a comparison by curator Michael W. Panhorst of the six known versions of the Marriage, which are not identical, and a commentary on Lewis's art.

The Wooing of Hiawatha (Old Arrow Maker) at Savannah College of Art and Design Museum.

Forever Free at Howard University, Washington DC, Lewis's second Emancipation work.

High Museum of Art, Atlanta GA, acquired this marble group, Columbus with a young Native-American woman, attributed to Edmonia Lewis .

 

MODELED 1868 

The earliest mention of Hagar, Lewis's third Emancipation work, dates to early 1868. This copy at the Smithsonian American Art Museum is marked 1875.

Three American Indians in Battle a/k/a  Indians Wrestling or Indian Combat (No title is inscribed). It is an ambitious 30 inch. high  marble group, signed and dated 1868. Now on display at the Cleveland Museum of Art.  

Minnehaha and Hiawatha busts at Howard University, Washington DC.

Minnehaha bust at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Minnehaha and Hiawatha busts at the Newark Museum, Newark, NJ. 

 

MODELED 1869-73

Bust of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (modeled 1869, carved 1871) at Harvard University Art Museums.

Bust of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1872) at Walker Gallery, British National Museums, Liverpool.

San Jose Library, San Jose CA, reminders of Lewis's 1873 visit to the West Coast.

Baltimore Museum of Art video includes details of Lewis's putti as Doreen Bolger tours the African American collection.

Portrait of a Woman with a rose in her hair, at St. Louis Art Museum.

 

MODELED 1878-1883 

Cowan's Auctions of Cincinnati: 'Veiled' Bride of Spring.   

Skinner Auctioneers: Allegorical Maiden, Spring.

Rebekah, (1880), photographed by Christopher Busta-Peck (private collection).

Recently discovered photo of the lost Adoration of the Magi (1883), Baltimore MD.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last updated 04/26/2013