Preview

Edmonia Lewis

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1572 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Edmonia Lewis
Edmonia Lewis and Henry Ossawa Tanner

When considering art there are many elements involved in a work of art. The most important elements in art are the most obvious one 's to see. Mary Edmonia Lewis and Henry Ossawa Tanner are two artists who have created art that speak to people in depth of their creativity and inspiration from others. Although these two artists study two different genres of art, both of these artists have great talent that has been recognized throughout the world. Mary Edmonia Lewis who was born in 1843 and Henry Ossawa Tanner who was born in 1859 have come a very long way, and overcame countless obstacles to become successful. “Edmonia Lewis was the first African American woman in the United States to gain widespread recognition as an artist, and the first African American in the United States to gain an international reputation as a sculptor” (Mary 40). Edmonia Lewis spent her early childhood with her mother 's family, the Chippewa Indians. She was known as Wildfire, and her brother was known as Sunrise. Edmonia and her brother were orphaned when Edmonia was about ten years old, two aunts took them in as children. Both Edmonia and Sunrise lived in northern New York state (Buick 10). Sunrise, with wealth from the California Gold Rush, financed prep school education for Edmonia Lewis, and then an education at Oberlin College, beginning in 1859. It wasn’t until Edmonia entered Oberlin College that she started going by her birth name.
Edmonia was considered a very popular student in college. On January 27, 1862 Edmonia’s college life took a turn for the worse. While at Oberlin College, Edmonia was accused of poisoning two white female students, who also boarded at John Keep 's home, a well- known Oberlin trustee. While awaiting trial, she was nearly beaten to death. Edmonia was defended in court by John Mercer Langston, an Oberlin graduate. She was acquitted and carried from the courtroom on the shoulders of supportive friends, and



Cited: Buick, Kirsten P. "The Ideal Works of Edmonia Lewis: Invoking and Inverting Autobiography" in American Art, Vol. 9. Summer 1995, pp. 5-19. Richardson, Marilyn. "Edmonia Lewis" in Harvard Magazine. Vol. 88. March-April 1986, pp. 40-41. Burgard, Timothy Anglin. "Edmonia Lewis and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Images and Identities" in American Art Review. Vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 114-117 "Henry Ossawa Tanner." 2011. Biography.com. 15 Apr 2011, 04:06 "Henry Ossawa Tanner." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 28 Apr. 2011.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Phillis Wheatley holds the accomplishment of being the first published African American writer. Her story is very different from the other published African American writers. Unlike most of the writers to follow her she was not born into slavery and she is not of a mixed race. Phillis Wheatley was abducted from her parents and her home in West Africa when she was around seven years old, she was named for the slave ship The Phillis that delivered her into slavery. I was surprised to learn Phillis Wheatley viewed slavery as an opportunity rather than a cruel and dehumanizing system. Her works differ from the writers to follow because she does not openly discourage slavery.…

    • 586 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Henry Ossawa Tanner

    • 326 Words
    • 1 Page

    Tanner's work is appreciated by many including the government of the United States of America, which has a select number of works of his on display in the White House. He was appreciated in his lifetime and is certainly appreciated for his great contributions to American art for all of us. Henry Ossawa Tanner died in…

    • 326 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bibliography: "Mabel Keaton Staupers." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 17 Oct. 2011. .…

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    "Group f.64." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2011. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/247121/Group-f64>.…

    • 2208 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Al Capone Research Paper

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The New Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 2. Jacob E. Safra, Chairman of the Board, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Meriwether Lewis

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Lewis, Clark, and the rest of their expedition ( A.K.A the Corps of Discovery) began their journey near St. Louis, Missouri, in May 1804. They encountered dangerous waters and harsh weather and endured hunger, illness, injury, and fatigue. Along the way, Lewis kept a journal of their sightings and adventures in addition to samples of plants and animals he confronted.…

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Eureka Stockade Essay

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages

    * Bedson, C. Darlington, R. Kwiatkowski, A. Wiggs, A, 2010, Humanities Alive 3, Second Edition, John Wiley & Sons, QLD.…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    White woman faced many obstacles, one of these are education. In 1836 a family from Bristol, England moved to America for a better lifestyle, in other words to experience the American Dream. This family was the Blackwell family who had 3 daughters with them (At the time). One of the daughters name was Elizabeth, and she was the youngest child.…

    • 872 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Gertrude B. Elion

    • 1066 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Gertrude Elion is an outstanding woman who has had to overcome many hardships to get where she is today. The most influential women of the 20th century achieved great things in the medical and science field. Although not everyone sees Gertrude Elion as a phenomenal woman of the 20th century, she deserves to be included on the book for her special achievements in the medical field. Gertrude was a biochemist and helped develop numerous drugs that have changed the medicine industry.…

    • 1066 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Traveling is an aspect of what is perceived from our day to day lives, to something new that has never been seen. Ellis Wilson traveled throughout life with many struggles, and trials that created barriers in his overall success as an artist. Faced with many obstacles, he set on a journey with a paintbrush, visions, and stories all throughout his life. Regardless what life presented to him he kept treading on. He was met with new opportunities with each experience and that led him to his epiphany of his artistic ability when he was inspired by his travels to Haiti and the African culture of the people and their interaction. He moved forward with his talents, and his greatest influence, when his father passed away in the 1930’s. Ellis Wilson portrayed this emotion of losing a loved one in his painting Funeral Procession. (Wilson). This painting he expressed the significance of losing a loved one, overcoming a tragedy, but still being able to move forward and celebrate that lost soul. He had a personal connection to this losing his father at such an early period of his artistic and personal life. He left landmarks with all the various jobs he took to display his artistic talents, he never was discouraged, and moved forward creating a path that would be influential to later African American artists, decades and centuries later. He found comfort and warm close feeling still being connected to his home town; he still shared his success with them. His documentary explained, “Ellis’ continued interest in sharing his accomplishments and artwork with his hometown and home state reflected his strong connection to his community and family roots. He once told an interviewer that his only real regret was that his father, who had inspired his love of art in the first place, did not live to see his son’s success”(King). Wilson’s painting Funeral Procession created in 1958 was an exhibition of his signature style of angularity and elongation, a dedication of his…

    • 1951 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    William l. Edwards (1986). Sisters of the Spirit: Three Black Women’s Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.…

    • 1751 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Walter Inglis Anderson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on September 29, 1903. He was born to George Walter Anderson a merchant, and Annette McConnell an artist. She had a passion for art, music, and literature which strongly influenced Anderson. He had an older brother named Peter and a younger brother named Mac. He attained edges from the parson Institute of Design in New York and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where he won the Packard Award for an animal drawing contest against the whole student body. His hobbies were poetry, science, history and art history. He also studied the major literary epics such as Homer and Virgil, which led to a number of sketches based on their events.…

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Fall Protection

    • 8717 Words
    • 35 Pages

    Bibliography: Lewis, C.S. On Stories and Other Essays on Literature. Ed. Walter Hooper. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers: New York, 1966.…

    • 8717 Words
    • 35 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Frederick Barbarossa

    • 2078 Words
    • 9 Pages

    References: "Frederick I." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2011. Web. 02 Nov. 2011. .…

    • 2078 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The dramatically direct approach employed by French painter Edouard Manet (1832-83) started a revolution in the art world and served as a source of inspiration to other artists, most notably the Impressionists.…

    • 2835 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays