The Death of Cleopatra

The Death of Cleopatra is a life-sized rendering of the legendary queen of Egypt who ruled from 51 to 30 BCE by sculptor, Edmonia Lewis. The sculpture depicts her dramatic suicide by allowing the fatal bite of a venomous snake. The sculpture is amazingly carved from marble, showing the draping of her dress spilling down around her legs and over the arm of her throne. The looseness of her arm is limp from lifelessness. One of her breast peeks from the bodice of her dress. Her countenance is one of contentment. Cleopatra’s throne is decorated with details worthy of a queen’s seating. Her crown, majestic.

Lewis carved The Death of Cleopatra in 1876. But the queen’s suicide has been depicted by other artists. Cleopatra, a painting by Juan Luna in 1881 also shows the moments after the queen’s death with two servants in different stages of collapse at her bedside. In another painting by Gerard Hoet, The Death of Cleopatra made in 1700-1701, the queen lies lifeless in a bed surrounded by onlookers.  The Death of Cleopatra by Guido Cagnacci created around 1645-1655 pictures Cleopatra standing staring up at the sky with a snake around her wrist and one breast bare. Lewis took on this subject that is the center of much artists’ discourse and challenged the way it had been represented by others.

La Muerte de Cleopatra by Juan Luna, 1881

Edmonia Lewis was the first African American and Native American to receive international recognition as a sculptor. She was born in New York in 1844, before the end of slavery. Her mother was a Chippewa Indian and her father was Black, but she was orphaned early on and grew up with her mother’s tribe. She attended Oberlin College in Ohio. The college was early in its acceptance of women and Black students. At Oberlin, she was accused of poisoning another student and was forced to leave before graduating.

She moved to Boston and studied with a professional artist before moving to Rome in 1865. There, she started sculpting in marble with a group of American women sculptors. And she did all the stonework herself. In 1877, former U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant commissioned her to create a portrait bust of him.  Lewis went on to have an illustrious career as a sculptor, many of her lauded sculptures include Forever Free, Hagar, and several busts of notable figures. Her career was eclipse by the change from neoclassical art. She moved to London, England and died in 1901.

The Death of Cleopatra is on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in the Luce Foundation Center.