While at Oberlin she shed her Chippewa name ​“Wildfire” and took the name Mary Edmonia Lewis. A famous sculptor Edward Augustus Brackett, who specialized in marble portrait busts, became Edmonia… The Smithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery will open to the public Friday, May 14, with separate timed-entry passes required for both buildings. Lewis was acquitted of the charge, though she had to endure not only a highly publicized trial but also a severe beating by white vigilantes. Lewis: Hagar, 1875 (view from the side) Lewis, who experienced discrimination as a woman, an African-American, and a Chippewa, might have naturally been drawn to an image which could unite several forms of oppression in one figure. Edmonia Lewis. Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution Lewis was the first woman of African-American and Native American heritage to achieve international recognition and fame as a sculptor in the fine arts world. While in Rome in 1869, Longfellow visited Lewis’s studio where he sat for a portrait and probably saw the sculptures his poem inspired. Lewis completed at least three figural groups inspired by the poem: The Wooing of Hiawatha, The Marriage of Hiawatha and Minnehaha, and The Departure of Hiawatha and Minnehaha. She developed an interest in the fine arts, but an accusation of poisoning, probably racially motivated, forced Lewis to leave the school before graduating. Edmonia Lewis, the first professional African-American sculptor, was born in Ohio or New York in 1843 or 1845. Medium: Carved Marble ), American sculptor whose Neoclassical works exploring religious and classical themes won contemporary praise and received renewed interest in … She flourished from 1864 The Death of Cleopatra ( Sculpture) Marriage of Hiawatha and Minnehaha ( Sculpture) Hagar ( Sculpture) Activate at a district or wonder with an available Great Work slot. Portrait busts of abolitionists and patrons such as Anna Quincy Waterston, and subjects depicting her dual African-American and Native American ancestry were her specialty. In Lewis’s sculpture Egypt represents black Africa, and Hagar is a symbol of courage and the mother of a long line of African kings. Her father was black, and her mother was Chippewa (Ojibwa) Indian. I would not stay a week pent up in cities, if it were not for my passion for art.” — Edmonia Lewis, quoted in ​“Letter From L. Maria Child,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, 27 Feb. 1864. The jealous Sarah cast Hagar into the wilderness after the birth of Sarah’s son Isaac. Mary Edmonia Lewis, "Wildfire" (c. July 4, 1844 – September 17, 1907), was an African American sculptor, of mixed African-American and Native American (Ojibwe) heritage. American sculptor Edmonia Lewis (c. 1840-c. 1909), of African-American and Native American back ground, overcame tremendous odds and the effects of a terrorist attack she survived as a young woman to become a successful artist working in Rome, Italy.. Long forgotten, Lewis's sculptures have found their way back into museum collections through remarkable routes of rediscovery. Celebrating Women’s History Month by illuminating the stories of women who challenged both what art could be and who could be an artist. After college, Lewis moved to Boston in 1864, where she began to pursue her career as a sculptor. The impressive detail Lewis adds to the figure's physical pose emphasizes Hagar's misfortune and her inner strength. She traveled to Boston and established herself as a professional artist, studying with a local sculptor and creating portraits of famous antislavery heroes. All public programs are online only, on-site public tours and events are currently suspended. 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