Henry Rocher
It's March and we continue our celebrations of Women's History Month.
Do you remember Edmonia Lewis? More than a week ago we featured one of her sculptures. Artists' works speak a lot about the artists themselves, but sometimes we lose the feeling that the great ones were also real people. And very rarely do we get to show photography in DailyArt ... so here it is: Edmonia's photograph.
She didn't have an easy life. She was a woman in the suffocating 19th-century society. It was very difficult to pursue an art career for a woman in these times. In addition, she wanted to become a sculptor, which was even more difficult. Furthermore, she was the orphaned child of a black father and a Native American mother. Despite all the difficulties, she made it and reshaped the 19th-century definition of a sculptor. She must have been very brave.
She achieved international recognition. Educated at Oberlin College, she settled first in Boston, where she created portrait busts and medallions of prominent politicians, writers, and abolitionists. In 1865 she relocated to Rome and joined an active community of American and British artists living abroad. Adopting a Neoclassical style then widely popular, she found inspiration in stories from the Bible and classical mythology, as well as from African American history. Her sculpture Forever Free (1867) depicts an African American couple as they first hear news of the Emancipation Proclamation. The work led one critic to exclaim, "No one, not born subject to the 'Cotton King,' could look upon this piece of sculpture without profound emotion." Although Lewis enjoyed unprecedented success for several decades, she died in obscurity.
P.S. Here's the story of the fabulous sculpture and mysterious life of Edmonia Lewis. <3