Modern · Cleveland Museum of Art · 2011.110
Indian Combat
Edmonia Lewis, 1868
Cleveland Museum of Art · American Painting and Sculpture Sundry Purchase Fund and Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund · Public domain
- Artist
- Edmonia Lewis
- Date
- 1868
- Medium
- marble
- Dimensions
- Overall: 76.2 x 48.3 x 36.5 cm (30 x 19 x 14 3/8 in.)
- Era
- Modern
Why it matters
A spiraling composition with three intertwined figures, Indian Combat ranks as Edmonia Lewis’s most dynamic and complex creation. Although her Native American subjects typically exist in multiple versions, this example appears to be unique. Of Indigenous (Mississauga) and African American ancestry, Edmonia Lewis studied at Oberlin College and apprenticed with a sculptor in Boston before moving to Rome in 1866. Her sculptures were readily purchased by patrons on both sides of the Atlantic.