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Edmonia Lewis
Sign in to saveAlso known as Wildfire Lewis, Wildfire, Mary Lewis
African American sculptor (1844–1907)
Key facts
- Born
- Mary Edmonia Lewis , July 4, 1844, Town of Greenbush, Rensselaer County , New York, US
- Died
- September 17, 1907 (1907-09-17) (aged 63), London, United Kingdom
- Education
- New-York Central College , Oberlin
- Known for
- Sculpture
- Movement
- Late Neoclassicism
- Patrons
- Numerous patrons, American and European
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Mary
- Family name
- Lewis
- Gender
- female
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of death
- Hammersmith
- Occupation
- artist
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Field of work
- art of sculpture
- Genre
- portrait
- Official website
- www.edmonialewis.com
- Image
- Edmonia-lewis 01.jpg
- Work location
- Boston
- Residence
- Italy
Show 9 more facts
- Commons category
- Edmonia Lewis
- date of birth
- 1845-07-04
- date of death
- 1907-09-17
- Commons Creator page
- Edmonia Lewis
- ethnic group
- Ojibwe
- place of burial
- St Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green
- has works in the collection
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- birth name
- Mary Edmonia Lewis
- pseudonym
- Wildfire
Sources (11)
via Wikidata · CC0
~35 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Mary Edmonia Lewis, also known as "Wildfire" (c. July 4, 1844 – September 17, 1907), was an American sculptor.
Born in Upstate New York of mixed African-American and Native American (Mississauga Ojibwe) heritage, she worked for most of her career in Rome. She was the first African-American and Native American sculptor to achieve national and then international prominence. She began to gain prominence in the United States during the Civil War; at the end of the 19th century, she remained the only Black woman artist who had participated in and been recognized to any extent by the American artistic mainstream. In 2002, the scholar Molefi Kete Asante named Edmonia Lewis on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Edmonia Lewis” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.