“The Death of Cleopatra” by Edmonia Lewis (c.1844-1907)

The Death of Cleopatra

Edmonia Lewis (c.1844-1907)

1876

Marble

63 x 31 1⁄4 x 46 in. (160.0 x 79.4 x 116.8 cm.)

Collection: Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1994.17. Gift of the Historical Society of Forest Park, Illinois.

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Image identified by the museum as "free to use." [Click on the image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links.]

Cleopatra was often depicted just before her death, but in 1859 the sculptor Baron Henri de Triqueti had shown her apparently in the very moment of dying. Lewis has chosen that same moment. "Its realistic portrayal of the death agony of the asp-bitten queen upset the prevailing Victorian sentimentalism about death, and made this statue the sculptural sensation of the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia" (Bearden and Henderson 54). The over-life-size statue went on to have a chequered existence, disappearing from view until it was finally recognised in a salvage yard in the 1980s, and rescued. This was fortunate indeed, because there is no doubt now that it shows Lewis at her boldest, most challenging and most powerful. — Jacqueline Banerjee

Links to Related Material

Bibliography

Bearden, Romare, and Harry Henderson. A History of African American Artists: From 1792 to the Present. New York: Pantheon, 1993.

"The Death of Cleopatra." SAAM. Web. 14 August 2024.

Powers, Hermania. "Who was Edmonia 'Wildfire' Lewis?" Art UK. Web. 13 August 2024.

Created 14 August 2024