Edmonia Lewis Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Edmonia Lewis Art Value Price Guide

Jan. 19, 2024
Hiawatha’s Marriage
Est: $250,000 - $350,000
Edmonia Lewis 1844 - 1907 Hiawatha's Marriage signed Edmonia. Lewis and dated Roma 1870 (along the base); titled Hiawatha's Marriage. (along the base) marble height: 27 ¼ in. (69.2 cm.) Conceived in 1866; this example executed in 1870.
Sotheby's
Jul. 12, 2023
The Young Octavian
Est: £6,000 - £8,000
Attributed to Edmonia Lewis American 1844 - 1907 The Young Octavian white marble, on a white marble socle 47cm., 18 1/2 in. overall
Sotheby's
Jul. 12, 2023
Sleep
Est: £12,000 - £18,000
Edmonia Lewis American 1844 - 1907 Sleep signed: EDMONIA LEWIS and entitled: SLEEP white marble 45.5 by 42cm., 18 by 16 1/2 in.
Sotheby's
Nov. 22, 2016
EDMONIA LEWIS (1845-1911) Minnehaha signed and dated ‘Edmonia Lewis / Fecit
Est: $25,000 - $35,000
EDMONIA LEWIS (1845-1911) Minnehaha signed and dated ‘Edmonia Lewis / Fecit a Rome / 1868’ and inscribed with title (along the base) marble 12in high
Bonhams
May. 21, 2016
AFTER EDMONIA LEWIS (MA/CA/Italy, 1845-1907) - "Hiawatha", a 19th c. Bust Portrait, circa 1868, white marble, unsigned, on an integral plinth with the subject's name, 13 1/4" tall. Good condition.
Est: $6,000 - $7,000
AFTER EDMONIA LEWIS (MA/CA/Italy, 1845-1907) - "Hiawatha", a 19th c. Bust Portrait, circa 1868, white marble, unsigned, on an integral plinth with the subject's name, 13 1/4" tall. Good condition.
Thomaston Place Auction Galleries
Sep. 19, 2012
Edmonia Lewis American, 1845-1907 Portrait Medallion of Wendell Phillips
Est: $20,000 - $40,000
Edmonia Lewis American, 1845-1907 Portrait Medallion of Wendell Phillips Signed EDMONIA LEWIS and inscribed and dated ROMA 1871 (ll) Marble Diameter 18 1/8 inches Although Lee Anderson believed that this portrait medallion depicted the likeness of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Marilyn Richardson, author of a biography of Edmonia Lewis forthcoming from the University of North Carolina Press, has identified the subject as Wendell Phillips (1811-1884). When she moved to Boston in 1863, Edmonia Lewis found favor with the abolitionist community, including Phillips, who was active in the campaign against slavery and was also an advocate for the rights of Native Americans. Lewis first depicted Phillips in 1864-65, when she created a group of portraits of abolitionist leaders; the current location of these works is not known. This portrait medallion will be reproduced in the forthcoming biography of the artist, The Indomitable Spirit of Edmonia Lewis. A Narrative Biography, by Harry Henderson and Albert Henderson, to be published in the Fall, 2012. We thank Marilyn Richardson and Albert Henderson for their very kind assistance in documenting this relief portrait. C Sold to Benefit the Lee B. Anderson Memorial Foundation
DOYLE Auctioneers & Appraisers
Dec. 02, 2010
EDMONIA LEWIS 1845 - AFTER 1911
Est: $125,000 - $175,000
EDMONIA LEWIS 1845 - AFTER 1911 HIAWATHA'S MARRIAGE signed Edmonia Lewis and dated Fecit A Roma 1868 on the base; also inscribed Hiawatha's Marriage on two inch base (probably not original) white marble height: 29 1/2 in. (74.93 cm)
Sotheby's
Jul. 10, 2010
Edmonia Lewis (American, 1845-1911) Large Marble Figure of an Allegorical Maiden, Spring, the standing figure wearing classical dress,
Est: $20,000 - $30,000
Edmonia Lewis (American, 1845-1911) Large Marble Figure of an Allegorical Maiden, Spring, the standing figure wearing classical dress, with gauzy scarf covering head and face, and clutched in one hand at her chin, the other hand holding a rose, on round, naturalistic base, incised at edge with signature and title, and dated 1880, ht. 34 1/2 in. Note: Edmonia Lewis, also known as Wildfire Lewis, was the daughter of an African American father and a Chippewa mother. She studied for a time in Boston, and then traveled to Rome where she joined the women's classical sculpture group known as the White Marmorean Flock. Lewis's works include scenes of American Indians, as well as depictions of freedom from slavery. She is regarded as one of the first African American female sculptors to gain international fame.
Skinner
Apr. 18, 2010
ATTRIBUTED TO EDMONIA LEWIS [AMERICAN 1845-1911],
Est: $8,000 - $10,000
ATTRIBUTED TO EDMONIA LEWIS [AMERICAN 1845-1911], CARVED WHITE MARBLE BUST OF HIAWATHA, H 14": H 14 1/4".
DuMouchelles
Dec. 03, 2009
EDMONIA LEWIS 1845 - AFTER 1911
Est: $125,000 - $175,000
THE MARRIAGE OF HIAWATHA titled Hiawatha's Marriage, signed Edmonia Lewis, and dated Roma 1872 on the base
Sotheby's
May. 21, 2009
Edmonia Lewis 1844-circa 1911 , The Marriage of Hiawatha white marble
Est: $125,000 - $175,000
signed Edmonia Lewis and dated Roma 1874 on back of base; also titled Hiawatha's Marriage on front of base white marble
Sotheby's
Feb. 07, 2009
Bust of Minnehaha by Edmonia Lewis, African American Sculptor,
Est: $20,000 - $30,000
marble bust atop marble base, standing 11.625" high. With Minnehaha inscribed between figure and base, and Edmonia Lewis/ Fecit A Roma/ 1868 on reverse side. Containing illegible pencil numbered incription on side of base (possibly an accession number). Born near Albany, New York, (Mary) Edmonia Lewis (ca. 1842 - after 1909) was the daughter of an Ojibway mother and a black, West Indian, father. Following studies at New York Central College in McGrawville, and at Oberlin College, she arrived in Boston, Massachusetts, in early 1863. There, under the patronage of abolitionists Lydia Maria Child, William Cooper Nell, and William Lloyd Garrison, she studied with the sculptor Edward Brackett. Lewis rented space in the Studio Building in downtown Boston and quickly established herself as an artist on the rise, specializing in plaster and marble portrait busts and medallions. Her reputation was enhanced by the success of her bust of the fallen Brahmin Civil War hero, Robert Gould Shaw. With funds from the sale of copies of that work and of other pieces, she sailed for Europe in the summer of 1865. Following a stay in Florence, Lewis settled in Rome where she lived for the rest of her professional life, making frequent trips to the United States to exhibit and sell her work and to garner new commissions. Lewis's Roman studio was listed along with those of other major artists of the day in all of the best guidebooks. Her career was followed closely by the American and European press, and she quickly became the first non-white American to gain an international reputation as a sculptor. Along with portrait busts of friends and public figures, her more ambitious early work referenced her dual heritage with themes of black emancipation and of Native American life and lore. In the latter instance she produced a body of work based upon Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha (1855), the single best-selling poem in the English language of the entire 19th-century. Savvy collectors and curious tourists alike flocked to Lewis's studio to purchase this work with its added cachet of coming from the hand of an artist who was herself part Indian. It was not uncommon for sculptors of successful larger works to excerpt a detail of such pieces in the form of a bust sold independently; most notably, Hiram Powers' Greek Slave was offered in both versions. Given her friendship with Powers, Lewis would have recognized the wisdom of that practice. Her elaborate group, The Old Arrowmaker and His Daughter (also known as The Wooing of Hiawatha), and the standing couple in her Marriage of Hiawatha, provided the models for her busts of Minnehaha and Hiawatha with the subject's name inscribed on the lower front atop the base. To date there are five known signed and dated copies of Lewis's Minnehaha bust housed in public and private collections. This previously unknown example adds another to that number. The mythic love story of Hiawatha and Minnehaha was well known. Still, in depicting the Indian maiden, Lewis walked a cautious line between creating a chaste child of the forest and perpetuating stereotypes of morally naïve savages. While Minnehaha wears an animal pelt, unlike the conventional depictions of such clothing at that period, often draped over one shoulder with an exposed breast emphasizing a partially clothed life in the wild, hers is fashioned into a modest garment accented with graduated beads at her neck. Lewis's characteristic interest in the play of pattern and texture is evident in the pelt bodice framed on one side by the smooth flesh of a bare shoulder, and on the other by the weight and folds of the fabric of the blanket draped across the opposite shoulder. The beads suggest worked stone or bone; the headband is likely a strip of leather. They pose a contrast to the softness of the billowing flow of wavy hair and to the lightness of the elegant sweep and fall of the crowning feather. This is a small work with a considerable aesthetic and narrative burden. Within her persona, Lewis's Minnehaha is designed to evoke the ambience of an untamed wilderness, the innocence of first love, and the nobility of a tragic figure caught in the inevitability of a sealed fate. For most of the latter part of the 19th century these small marbles by Edmonia Lewis were highly prized; one example of her bust of Minnehaha was displayed at the National Academy of Design as early as 1868. Beginning in the 1990s they have begun to return to an increasingly avid market. We would like to thank Edmonia Lewis scholar Marilyn Richardson for the catalogue essay. She is the Principal of Art + History Consultants, a research and design group in Watertown, MA. The technical description and condition report were provided by Cowan's Auctions. The bust was once painted white, and this residue can still be seen in areas. It has mostly worn to again expose the marble as it would have been after execution. The paint was applied several decades ago. Two natural veins in the marble extend both across the face and the neck/chest, each visible on the reverse side. A small loss is apparent above the Fecit A Roma inscription on verso.
Cowan's Auctions
May. 22, 2008
Edmonia Lewis (circa 1843-after 1909) , The Old Arrow Maker white marble
Est: $70,000 - $100,000
inscribed Old Arrow Maker on the base white marble
Sotheby's
Mar. 17, 1994
*EDMONIA LEWIS (B. 1843/45) THE OLD INDIAN ARROW MAKER AND HIS DAUGHTER inscribed and dated Ms. Edmonia Lewis Roma 1866 and EDMONIA LEWIS ROMA.1866; also titled
Est: $30,000 - $50,000
incorrectly on the base The Wooing of Hiawatha white marble on a two inch grey marble base Height: 24 in. 61 cm. The daughter of a Chippewa Indian mother and a black father, both of whom died when she was three years old, Lewis was raised by the Chippewa tribe and educated at Oberlin, Ohio, before going on to Boston, where Edward Brackett encouraged her to take up sculpture. Lewis gained widespread attention in 1866, after exhibiting a bust of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, who had recently been killed in battle while leading a black regiment in the Civil War. The successful marketing of copies of this bust enabled Lewis to travel to Rome where she joined the ranks of other American sculptors. Wayne Craven writes: "In addition to Harriet Hosmer and Anne Whitney, several other women took up sculpture around the middle of the century. Henry James called them `the White Marmorean Flock' when he wrote of them in his biography of W. W. Story, and the epithet has stuck. The group included Margaret Foley, Louisa Lander, Emma Stebbins, and Edmonia Lewis, all of whom settled in Rome." The present sculpture is one of only three works on the subject of The Old Indian Arrow Maker executed by Lewis. It is characteristic of her work in depicting the life and legends of the Indians or the struggle of the African-American cause. Two of Lewis's sculptures were taken from Longfellow's popular work, Hiawatha. The Marriage of Hiawatha was sold in these rooms, May 27, 1992, lot 36. The Wooing of Hiawatha, according to an article in Revolution, April 1871, "represents Minnehaha seated, making a pair of Moccasins, and Hiawatha by her side with a world of love and longing in his eyes." This does not match the subject matter and composition of the present lot, and it must be assumed that its base was mistakenly titled. Literature: Wayne Craven, Sculpture in America, New York, 1968, pp. 228, 330, 333-335 William H. Gerdts, American Neo-Classical Sculpture The Marble Resurrection, New York, 1973, no. 159, p. 132, illustration of another version.
Sotheby's