Hiawatha
Edmonia Lewis
1868 · Marble · The American Wing
Like many American sculptors of the nineteenth century, Lewis, an artist of African American and Native American (Anishinaabe/Ojibwe) descent, worked in Rome, Italy. Her multiracial identity and gender were formative in her selection of subjects. Between 1866 and 1872, she completed a series of marble sculptures on the popular theme of Hiawatha and Minnehaha, drawn from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem The Song of Hiawatha (1855). This cabinet-sized bust and its pendant (2015.287.2) represent the star-crossed lovers from once-warring nations (Anishinaabe and Dakota), and blend an idealized treatment of form with Native American dress and accessories.
- Artist
- Edmonia Lewis
- Date
- 1868
- Medium
- Marble
- Culture
- American
- Department
- The American Wing
- Credit line
- Morris K. Jesup and Friends of the American Wing Funds, 2015
