Edmonia Lewis (c. 1844-1907) was an American artist known for her Neoclassical sculpture. Born in New York state of Indiginous and African-American heritage, she spent most of her career abroad in Italy. Her sculpture The Death of Cleopatra (1876) was carved for display at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Weighing over 3,015 pounds, the monumental sculpture depicts Cleopatra’s final moments as told in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, in which the Egyptian queen lets a poisonous snake fatally bite her. While other artistic iterations of the scene emphasized Cleopatra’s well-known beauty and sensuality, Lewis instead depicts a somber and altogether less glamorous depiction of the queen’s death, drawing shock from its contemporary audience. Despite the crowds of viewers that it inspired during the exhibition, the sculpture went relatively forgotten until it was rediscovered and brought back into public recognition over a century later.

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