Masterpiece Story: The Death of Cleopatra by Edmonia Lewis

Lewis and Cleopatra

Edmonia Lewis’ life-size marble sculpture of Cleopatra shows the Egyptian queen on her throne, slumped back just after her death and still clasping the asp which killed her in her right hand. Details like her headdress and the hieroglyphic style decorations on the throne identify the figure as Egyptian although without any real historical accuracy.

The two carved heads on the arms of the throne have a Sphinx-like appearance and refer to the twins which Cleopatra had with Mark Antony. The Queen prominently wears a ring on her wedding finger, perhaps to emphasize the strength and legitimacy of their relationship.

Cleopatra is shown swathed in a long, full robe which partially conceals her body and falls in deep folds across the arm of the throne. Her right breast is exposed where the asp has bitten her, but the sculpture is notably less sexualized than many images of the queen.

Cleopatra in Art

Cleopatra was not an unusual subject in art. Her dramatic and tragic life story was a fertile source for narrative painting, with artists exploiting scenes like her arrival before Caesar wrapped in a carpet, dissolving a pearl in her wine, or meeting Mark Antony on her barge. With the growth of Orientalist subjects in the 19th century and greater knowledge of Ancient Egyptian architecture and design, painters exploited color and details to create ever more exotic-looking images.

It was, however, relatively unusual to show Cleopatra after her death. Artists preferred the drama of her contemplating suicide, receiving the asp hidden in a basket, or actually holding it to her breast. When the dead queen was represented, the scene was frequently dramatized with attending servants, dramatic lighting, and eroticized nudity.

Lewis chooses a much quieter interpretation. The queen is peaceful. Without the detail of the snake in her hand, she could almost be sleeping. The reminders of her relationship with Mark Antony—the ring and the children’s faces—reinforce the idea that this was a personal choice and she is now reunited with her lover.

Cleopatra in Sculpture

The same focus on drama and eroticism could be found in three dimension art. The writhing agony of Charles Gauthier’s version might be extreme—he represents the queen almost as a female Laocoön—but representations of the death of Cleopatra fitted easily into the classical tradition of the reclining nude.

Lewis’ choice of a seated pose may have been influenced by the work of fellow American sculptor, William Wetmore Story, whose 1858 version shows the queen wearing a similar robe and headdress. She is contemplating suicide, her choice represented by the snake bangle on her arm. Story’s emphasis is on Neoclassical elegance and decorum. His choice of an open-backed throne creates a lightness and a sinuous curve down the length of the figure from raised arm to extended foot. The draperies fall in delicate linear folds compared with the crumpled weightiness of Lewis’, which emphasizes the lifelessness of the body beneath.

A Strong Woman

Edmonia Lewis (c. 1844–1907) was the child of a Haitian father and a part Chippewa mother. She was well aware of her status as an outsider and was astute enough to exploit it, for instance describing her ‘wandering life, fishing and swimming… and making moccasins’ after she was orphaned at nine. Yet, her brother made enough money in the gold rush to fund her education and set her up in Boston.

Equally, in her early career, she enjoyed the patronage of prominent anti-slavery campaigners. Her mentor, sculptor Edward Augustus Brackett, had achieved fame with his Bust of John Brown. Lewis herself built a successful business producing portrait medallions and busts of Boston abolitionists.

Despite this, Lewis had to battle against direct prejudice and violence. Her college studies were cut short after she was falsely accused of poisoning two of her fellow students. Subsequently attacked and severely beaten, she appeared in court to clear her name, only to be further accused of stealing and asked to leave.

In her life and in her work Lewis had to tread a delicate balance between projecting an acceptable image of an ‘exotic’ Black woman artist and not upsetting the establishment. In this context, Cleopatra, another strong woman of color, seems a very deliberate subject choice.

A Carver of Marble

In 1866 Lewis left Boston for Europe and eventually ended up in Rome, the ideal location for someone seeking inspiration as a sculptor. She even took over the studio once used by Antonio Canova, the great 18th-century Neoclassicist. Rome was a place of less overt racial prejudice and there was also a considerable community of expat Americans, including writer Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Lewis sought him out and produced a series of works based on his 1855 poem The Song of Hiawatha. 

Most significantly, Lewis was befriended by fellow sculptor Harriet Hosmer who had been based in the city since 1852. Women sculptors were a rare breed. Sculpture was considered the most physically demanding art form. It was the most expensive to pursue and it was the most focused on the human form—a major problem at a time when women were banned from life-drawing classes.

Lewis, like Hosmer, was even more unusual in that she worked in marble and did the carving herself. Partly, this was out of necessity: she could not afford to pay masons to do the work for her. It was also a conscious choice, a determination to be the complete embodiment of a sculptor and to compete equally with her male peers.

Black Subjects, White Marble

Lewis’ subjects were racially diverse: Native American, Egyptian, and, in 1867, Forever Free, which portrayed an African American couple celebrating their emancipation. All of these were carved in white marble, the material of choice for academic sculpture. By using marble, Lewis elevated subjects which might have been viewed as less worthy, to the status of classical art. It allowed her to represent figures who might otherwise have been considered unsuitable had they been produced with more naturalistic skin colors.

Her Cleopatra, following artistic convention, has European features. Is Lewis guilty of ‘whitewashing’ or of being overly conservative in following the aesthetic norms of the time? In reality, she trod a fine line. Forever Free strikingly shows a strong, defiant Black figure raising his fist, at a time when other abolitionist images showed women, or kneeling, grateful men. But the sculpture was small scale, making the male figure appear less threatening to her mainly white audience.

In contrast, in The Death of Cleopatra, Lewis uses size, weight, and vigorous carving for emphasis, and the familiar background narrative generates emotive power. In both cases, she combines material, subject, and style to give marginal figures a place and an audience.

Cleopatra in Philadelphia

Lewis spent four years carving The Death of Cleopatra in Rome. She then returned to America but had to spend time making smaller pieces before she earned enough money to ship the three-ton Cleopatra back to the United States. It was eventually shown in Philadelphia in the Centennial Exhibition of 1876. The sculpture generated plenty of attention, not all of it good. For some critics, it was simply too realistic: ‘The effects of death are represented with such skill as to be absolutely repellent,” wrote artist William J. Clark.

A Sad Aftermath

The Death of Cleopatra went on to be exhibited at the Chicago Interstate Industrial Expo but failed to find a buyer. Lewis herself had returned to Europe and the artwork was effectively abandoned. It found a temporary home as a curiosity in a Chicago saloon and eventually ended up being used as a gravestone for a racehorse named Cleopatra.

It was only rediscovered in the 1980s and was rescued and restored by the Smithsonian, although its pitted surface and weathering remain testimony to a century of neglect. This is a familiar story. Many of Lewis’ works, like those of other women sculptors, seemed to disappear from view. Two of her smaller sculptures were found in Scotland this century.

Lewis herself was also lost to history. The latter years of her life were spent in poverty in London, where she was buried in 1907, in a grave only recently rediscovered. Her traditional style of sculpture had become unfashionable. Perhaps also, in the aftermath of Emancipation, her story was less immediately appealing to those white liberals who had championed her work.

The Death of Cleopatra is a monumental image of a powerful woman of color, but it is also a deeply ambiguous one. Cleopatra was defeated, although she chose to decide her own destiny and commit suicide rather than be humiliated at the hands of the Romans. She is portrayed here in purest white marble and given European features.

Edmonia Lewis spent a lifetime navigating complex social hierarchies which championed her as a ‘symbol’ of abolition and Indigenous rights but also made sure she never forgot that she was ‘other.’ She knew exactly how far she could push her art and remain within the bounds of acceptability. Her work now perhaps seems conservative, but given the restrictions placed on her as a Black woman artist, it is incredible that she succeeded at all.