The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 23, 2024

Indian Combat

Indian Combat

1868
(American, c. 1844–1907)
Overall: 76.2 x 48.3 x 36.5 cm (30 x 19 x 14 3/8 in.)

Did You Know?

Growing up in her Ojibwe community, Lewis went by a name that translates as "Wildfire."

Description

Of Native American (Ojibwe) and African American ancestry, Lewis studied at Oberlin College and apprenticed with a sculptor in Boston before relocating to Rome in 1866. Her most popular works were Native American subjects, readily purchased by patrons on both sides of the Atlantic. Indian Combat, a spiraling composition with three intertwined figures, ranks as her most dynamic and complex creation. Although Lewis’s Native American subjects typically exist in multiple versions, this example appears to be unique.
  • 1950s
    [Unidentified antique/estate consignment shop, Newton, MA]
    1950s-2010
    William (1916-2006) and Betty (1926-2010) Bresnick, Weston, MA
    2010
    [Gabriel's Auctioneers and Appraisers, Norwood, MA]
    2010-2011
    [Gerald Peters Gallery, New York]
    2011
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Ausherman, Maria, Masters of Shape: The Lives and Art of American Women Sculptors. (Novato, CA: Goff Books, 2022). Mentioned and reproduced, p. 71.
    Huidekoper, Alfred. Glimpses of Europe in 1851 and 1867-8. Meadeville, Pa.: Printed for the Author, 1882.
    Published as: Indians Wrestling Mentioned: P. 184 catalog.hathitrust.org
    Gerdts, William H. "Celebrities of the Grand Tour: The American Sculptors in Florence and Rome." In Lure of Italy: American Artists and the Italian Experience, 1760-1914. Theodore E. Stebbins, ed., 66-93. Boston, MA: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1992. Mentioned: P. 89, as Indians Wrestling.
    Litt, Steven. "Museum Acquires Rare Sculpture." The Plain Dealer (November 11, 2011): B2. Mentioned: P. B2
    Cole, Mark. "Indian Combat." In Treasures of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art London; United Kingdom: Scala Books, 2012. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 260-261
    "Museums." The Art Newspaper 21 (January 2012): 13-25. Mentioned and reproduced: P.25
    Franklin, David. "Recent Acquisitions (2005—11) at the Cleveland Museum of Art." The Burlington Magazine 154, no. 1312 (July 2012): 525-32. Reproduced: P. 530 www.jstor.org
    Cole, Mark and Helen Forbes-Fields. African American Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013. reproduced: p.2; Mentioned: p.3
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 49
    "Education. Teach to Learn." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 59, no. 3 (May/June 2019): 5-11. Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 5.
    Woods, Naurice Frank. Race and Racism in Nineteenth-Century Art: The Ascendency of Robert Duncanson, Edward Bannister, and Edmonia Lewis. Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 2021. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 163-164, fig. 3.5
    Ware, Zaria. Blk Art: The Audacious Legacy of Black Artists and Models in Western Art. New York, NY : Harper Design, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2023. Reproduced: p. 171
  • Artlens Exhibition 2019. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer).
  • {{cite web|title=Indian Combat|url=false|author=Edmonia Lewis|year=1868|access-date=23 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2011.110