"Edmonia"

Oil and gold leaf on canvas

37cmx27cm

Mary Edmonia Lewis, a woman with big eyes born in the United States in 1844, developed her career in Rome, Italy, being the first African-American woman to achieve fame and international recognition in the world of sculptural arts. A woman who opened the heavens so that others could see how high they could fly.

"They declared me a savage, they could do nothing with me, 'here is your book, the book of nature, come and study it.'"

-Edmonia Lewis