Today we are Saluting Edmonia Lewis (1844 - 1911) for her work in the field of Art.
 |
| Edmonia Lewis Photo Courtesy of wikimedia.org |
Ms. Lewis was the first professional African-American and Native-American sculptor, Edmonia Lewis earned critical praise for work that explored religious and classical themes.
Edmonia Lewis was born around 1844 in Greenbush, New York. Her first notable commercial success was a bust of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. Sales of copies of the bust allowed her to sail to Rome, Italy, where she mastered working in marble. She quickly achieved success as a sculptor. The circumstances of her death, which occurred circa 1911, are unclear.(Biography.com)
After college, Lewis moved to Boston in early 1864, where she began to pursue her career as a sculptor. The keeps wrote a letter of introduction on Lewis' behalf to William Llyod Garrison in Boston, and he was able to introduce her to already established sculptors in the area, as well as writers who then publicized Lewis in the abolitionist press.[14] Finding an instructor, however, was not easy for Lewis. Three male sculptors refused to instruct her before she was introduced to the moderately successful sculptor Edward A. Brackett who specialized in marble portrait busts.[15][16] His clients were some of the most important abolitionists of the day including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Llyod Garrison, Charles Sumner, and John Brown.[15] To instruct her, he lent her fragments of sculptures to copy in clay, which he then critiqued.[16] Under his tutelage, she crafted her own sculpting tools and sold her first piece, a sculpture of a woman’s hand, for $8.[17] Their relationship did not end amicably as was mentioned by Anne Whitney, fellow sculptor and friend of Lewis', in a letter she wrote to her sister in 1864. The reason for the split, however, was never mentioned.[15] She opened her studio to the public in her first solo exhibition in 1864.[18](Wikipedia.org)
