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Edmonia Lewis was an American neoclassical sculptor who defied all odds and adversity to become known famously for her works. Born in the Northeastern United States in the 1850s, Lewis was the daughter of an African-American father and a Chippewa Native American mother, who both passed before Lewis was five years old. Lewis and her older brother, Samuel, were raised by her mother’s tribe until he left and took a job as a gold miner, which eventually allowed him to support her education. Shortly after enrolling in Oberlin College in Ohio in 1895 Lewis was abruptly and unjustly accused of poisoning her two white roommates but was eventually acquitted. However, she continued to be the victim of verbal assaults and sustained severe injuries after a brutal physical attack. The next year, Lewis was forced to leave Oberlin after their refusal to readmit her to complete the academic requirements.
In 1863, with Samuel’s continued support, Lewis relocated to Boston where she would serve as an apprentice to sculpture, Edward Brackett. She quickly flourished in this medium and gained recognition after creating art and sculpture portraits of famous abolitionists like Charles Sumner and William Lloyd Garrison. With this success, Lewis was able to sell her art, which funded her first trip to Europe in 1865. She eventually settled in Rome, rented an art studio and befriended other sculptures who helped her hone her craft. Unique to other sculptors of the time, Lewis worked solely on her projects, perhaps due to the worry of the loss of individuality in her pieces. While most of her sculptors did not survive to modern day, her most famous pieces, “Forever Free”; “Poor Cupid”; “Anna Quincy Waterson: A Portrait” did; and her 3015 pound marble sculpture, “The Death of Cleopatra” was eventually acquired by the National Museum of Art in Washington, D.C. Lewis never had children or married and died in 1907 in London, England.
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/lewis-edmonia-1845/
https://americanart.si.edu/artist/edmonia-lewis-2914
http://sites.psu.edu/unspokenartists/2015/10/20/edmonia-lewis-neoclassical-sculpture/