Edmonia Lewis, ' Free ' Black Woman, Even Overcame That To Be Great!

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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What I mean by that is she managed to not die when beaten, falsely accused by virtue of being the handy, black person around when near-death occurred in the vicinity, kept her head and spirit intact despite a childhood she disliked speaking of AND grew her artistic spark to the point most of us haven't attempted as artists. She could and did contemplate the work emerging from marble. To me, as a serious artist, this has always been insane- it's why you'll find me in front of old masters with my mouth open for hours. For real- because as an artists you CAN understand what it took, how they got there. In marble. And it's unfathomable. Heck- a good marble tombstone flattens me. For Edmonia to not only have cultivated the spark of creativity but blew on it, tended it until it was at this steady glow required to create what she did- why and IN what she did- makes you cry. It just does.

Had to choose this bio, still doesn't do well, and would seriously recommend reading more and others on her. GET THIS!! This article covers a lot very well- still not things like her having to wander the woods with her Native American relatives- it've pretty darn tame. One of most famous scultures? NOT HERE. It's called " Forever Free" . :smile: I's quite, quite wonderful- a black man and a white woman, very emotional work.

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" 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. "
http://www.biography.com/people/edmonia-lewis-9381053


Edmonia Lewis was born on July 4, 1844, in Greenbush, New York, which is now the city of Rensselaer.[1] Her father was Haitian of African descent, while her mother was of Mississauga Ojibwe and African-American descent.[2] Lewis's mother was known as an excellent weaver and craftswoman.[3] Her family background inspired Lewis in her later work.
When Lewis was about nine years old, both of her parents died within a year of each other.[4] Lewis and her older brother, Samuel, were taken in and lived with their mother’s sisters for the next three years. Lewis and her aunts sold Ojibwe baskets and other crafts to tourists visiting Niagara Falls, Toronto, and Buffalo.[5] Becoming a successful businessman and gold prospector, her brother Samuel paid for her tuition to the New York Central College.[5] Lewis was rebellious and did not learn English well, so Samuel suggested she transfer to Oberlin College, outside Cleveland, Ohio.[6]
At the time, Oberlin College was one of the first higher learning institutions in the United States to admit women and people of differing ethnicities. Lewis's decision to attend Oberlin was one that would significantly change her life, as that is where she began her art studies.[7]

Incident at Oberlin College

During the winter season of 1862, several months after the start of the Civil War, while Edmonia Lewis attended Oberlin College, an incident involved her and two classmates, Maria Miles and Christina Ennes. The three women, who boarded in the home of Oberlin trustee John Keep, planned to go sleigh riding with some young men later that day. Before the sleighing, Lewis served her friends a drink of spiced wine. Shortly after, Miles and Ennes fell severely ill. Doctors examined them and concluded that the two women had some sort of poison in their system, apparently cantharides, a reputed aphrodisiac. For a time it was not certain that they would survive. Days later, it became apparent that the two women would recover from the incident, and, because of their recovery, the authorities initially took no action.
Townspeople attacked Lewis. While she was walking home alone one night, she was dragged into an open field by unknown assailants and badly beaten.[8] Those responsible for her injuries were never found.[9] Due to the attack, local authorities arrested Lewis, charging her with poisoning her friends. The college defended their student throughout the trial. John Mercer Langston, an Oberlin College alumnus, and the only practicing African-American lawyer in Oberlin, represented Lewis during her trial. Although most witnesses spoke against her and she did not testify, the jury acquitted her of the charges.

........After college, Lewis moved to Boston late in 1863.[10] She began to study under a well-known sculptor, Edward Augustus Brackett. Under his tutelage, she crafted her own sculpting tools and sold her first piece, a sculpture of a woman’s hand, for $8.[11] She opened her studio to the public in her first solo exhibition in 1864.[12]
Lewis was inspired by the lives of abolitionists and Civil War heroes. She met Union Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the commander of an African American Civil War regiment from Massachusetts. She was inspired to create a bust of his likeness, which impressed the Shaw family, who purchased her homage.[13] The poet Anna Quincy Waterston was inspired to write a poem about both Lewis and Shaw.[14]

Lewis was determined to study in Rome and sailed there in 1865.[7][15] On her 1865 passport is written, "M. Edmonia Lewis is a Black girl sent by subscription to Italy having displayed great talents as a sculptor".[16] The established sculptor Hiram Powers gave her space to work in his studio.[15] She entered a circle of expatriate artists and established her own space within the former studio of 18th-century Italian sculptor Antonio Canova .

Ending Wiki's contribution there- and dislike the piddling over where someone died, who she spoke to on a Saturday in March one year. It's distracting. You hate and love her story- one of our most talented artists had to flee our shores, the land of her birth, to set free her art and she STILL chose to represent us in her work? Just wow. I'd have gone to the UK, started painting peasant revolts, anything more cheerful than what she went through here.

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I think this is Hiawatha and her father?

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Not as good a shot, and different lighting, I just kind of liked it.

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She studied the classics- of course now I forget which bust this is, like an idjit, please excuse

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An interesting woman. Oberlin College has a building named after her:

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It's actually the former home of an Underground Railroad conductor, who was also an Oberlin College Professor, abolitionist lecturer, and state legislator responsible for writing Ohio's most radical Personal Liberty Law.
 
Her best known work seems to be ' Forever Free', which of course has taken heat because it features a black man and a white woman. She is thought to represent an abolitionist, which seems like it may be true. If so, it was extremely generous of Edmonia to have crafted this given the treatment she received at the hands of white women- supposedly her fellow sisters in the equality fight, and her future sisters in the fight for women's rights. There, she was jettisoned too, as were all black women.

Yet with her treatment at the hands of whites, and in particular the event which threatened her very freedom and reputation having involved white females, Edmonia used one to highlight a point she needed to make in solid stone. Good for her, because it worked, being controversial enough to draw attention to the work and keep it in the public eye for the last 150 years. SO powerful, the formerly enslaved man reaching beyond those chains. Gives you chills.
 
I'd not heard of her before, thank you for posting. The following pretty much symbolizes her life.

“Sometimes the times were dark and the outlook was lonesome, but where there is a will there is a way. I pitched in and dug at my work until now I am where I am. It was hard work, though, but with color and sex against me I have achieved success. That is what I tell my people whenever I meet them, that they must not be discouraged but work ahead until the world is bound to respect them for what they have accomplished." - Edmonia Lewis
 
I'd not heard of her before, thank you for posting. The following pretty much symbolizes her life.

“Sometimes the times were dark and the outlook was lonesome, but where there is a will there is a way. I pitched in and dug at my work until now I am where I am. It was hard work, though, but with color and sex against me I have achieved success. That is what I tell my people whenever I meet them, that they must not be discouraged but work ahead until the world is bound to respect them for what they have accomplished." - Edmonia Lewis

Oh my Gosh. I hadn't bumped into this. What an awful thing to HAVE to say, at the same time what a perfectly splendid thing for her to have said- it does make looking at her work even more appealing. Thanks very much for posting this!

I'm not a huge " What does it ' mean ' person, when it comes to art, having a very strong inkling Picasso began playing with all of us very soon after discovering his astonishing talent for realism was dismissed and the more off-the-wall, more simplistic his sketches became, the more they were worth, for instance. But- I really can see a certain containment in her work. It seems to me to be a self-imposed thing on her part requiring inner direction, not some outerwardly motivated need for approval by other people- as odd as that concept would be for an artist to hold. Given the above quote it's possible I'd be right, who knows. She achieved by herself, for herself THEN was able to display these achievements to the world- despite how she must have had to redirect her bitterness over ' obstacles' which should not have BEEN obstacles. Black and female? * sigh *

I had not been familiar with Edmonia, either- thank goodness for this forum and the curiosity it awakens in all of us.
 
“Sometimes the times were dark and the outlook was lonesome, but where there is a will there is a way. I pitched in and dug at my work until now I am where I am. It was hard work, though, but with color and sex against me I have achieved success. That is what I tell my people whenever I meet them, that they must not be discouraged but work ahead until the world is bound to respect them for what they have accomplished." - Edmonia Lewis

Ernie Mac found this, which seems such an understatement, you have even more respect for her.

Another thread is current, too, hate to double post photos of her work.

Bumping despite it being from 2014, not comprehensive and not well written, sorry. Her work really does speak for itself. I'm an artist and find her work so peaceful in aspect it staggers you. She could have chosen to be disturbing or tragic and nope- it's either strong or deep or tranquil or all of hem.
 
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