The Death of Cleopatra

Object Details

Artist

Edmonia Lewis, born Greenbush (now Rensselaer), NY 1844-died London, England 1907

Sitter

Cleopatra

Luce Center Label

Cleopatra (69 - 30 BCE), the legendary queen of Egypt from 51 to 30 BCE, is often best known for her dramatic suicide, allegedly from the fatal bite of a venomous snake. Here, Edmonia Lewis portrayed Cleopatra in the moment after her death, wearing her royal attire, in majestic repose on a throne. The identical sphinx heads flanking the throne represent the twins she bore with Roman general Marc Antony, while the hieroglyphics on the side have no meaning. Lewis was working at a time when Neoclassicism was a popular artistic style that favored classical, Biblical, or literary themes—thus Cleopatra was a common subject. Unlike her contemporaries who often depicted an idealized Cleopatra merely contemplating suicide, Lewis showed the queen’s death more realistically, after the asp’s venom had taken hold—an attribute viewed as “ghastly” and “absolutely repellant” in its day (William J. Clark, Great American Sculpture, 1878). Despite this, the piece was first exhibited to great acclaim at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876 and critics raved that it was the most impressive American sculpture in the show. Not long after its debut, however, Death of Cleopatra was presumed lost for almost a century—appearing at a Chicago saloon, marking a horse’s grave at a suburban racetrack, and eventually reappearing at a salvage yard in the 1980s. The Museum has an online exhibit that documents the statue’s storied history and conservation.

Credit Line

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Historical Society of Forest Park, Illinois

carved 1876

Object number

1994.17

Restrictions & Rights

CC0

Type

Sculpture

Medium

marble

Dimensions

63 x 31 1/4 x 46 in. (160.0 x 79.4 x 116.8 cm.)

See more items in

Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection

Department

Painting and Sculpture

On View

Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2nd Floor, East Wing

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Topic

Figure female\full length

Animal\reptile\snake

Egyptian

Portrait female

State of being\death\suicide

History\ancient\Egypt

Record ID

saam_1994.17

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk7c940ae99-f92a-455c-bfe5-5b5f09e4864b