![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/b60c6d856c4079752a5e7e495f8c7e8e/9951b1df-0637-4ed1-b549-e2224e33dbd0_rw_600.jpg?h=4daa46ba5c2ff2a69707fb8aef65dc62)
"The Death Of Cleopatra (Morte de Cleopatra)" Acrylic, Ink, 22x28" Based on the original sculpture
by Mary Edmonia Lewis located (pictured below) at The Smithsonian, Washington DC
Discussion:
Mary Edmonia Lewis (c. July 4, 1844 – September 17, 1907) was an American sculptor who worked for most of her career in Rome, Italy. Born free in New York, she was the first woman of African-American and Native American heritage to achieve international fame and recognition as a sculptor in the fine arts world. Her work is known for incorporating themes relating to black people and indigenous peoples of the Americas into Neoclassical-style sculpture.
She began to gain prominence in the United States during the American Civil War; at the end of the 19th century, she remained the only black woman who had participated in and been recognized to any degree by the American artistic mainstream.[1] In 2002, the scholar Molefi Kete Asante named Edmonia Lewis on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.
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Mary Edmonia Lewis, The Death of Cleopatra, carved 1876, marble, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Historical Society of Forest Park, Illinois, 1994.17