Lewis studied at Oberlin College and apprenticed with a sculptor in Boston before relocating to Rome in 1866. Of Native American (Ojibwe) and African American ancestry, she became the first non-white American sculptor to achieve international renown. Lewis’s 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.
