Eberle,Abastenia St. Leger,WomanSitting,1993.30

Images(5)

Woman Sitting

Artist Abastenia St. Leger Eberle (American, 1878 - 1942)

Date1920

MediumSculpture; bronze, reddish brown patina with applied verdigris

Dimensions10 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 8 in.

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineGiven in memory of Anthony and Mary Malinowski

Terms

Object number1993.30

DescriptionThis small bronze is typical of Eberle's work in almost every way. Rather than to pose a model in the studio, the artist preferred to observe people going about their everyday lives and then turn those observations into sculpture. Thus she produced figures such as "Roller Skating" (1906), one of her best known works; "Playing Jacks" and "Mud Pies" (both 1912) on a similar theme; "Windy Doorstep" (1910), for which she won the Helen Foster Barnett Prize at the National Academy of Design in 1910; and the series of three figures, Girl Seated, "Girl Standing", and "Sea Treasures" (1913).
This work may be the one exhibited at Eberle's 1921 Macbeth exhibition under the name "Fannie" or "Fannie Dressing". It is difficult to determine the edition sizes of Eberle's sculptures; she seems to have made casts upon demand and no papers recording the process have been found. No other examples of the New Britain sculpture are known.

DBD

Bibliography:
"People Who Interest Us: Abastenia Eberle, Sculptor of National Tendency," "Craftsman" 18 (July 1910): 474-75; Christina Merriman, "New Bottles for New Wine: The Work of Abastenia St. Leger Eberle," "Survey" 30 (May 3, 1913): 196-99; Robert G. McIntyre, "The Broad Vision of Abastenia Eberle," "Arts and Decoration" 3 (August 3, 1913): 334-37; Louise R. Noun, "Abastenia St. Leger Eberle Sculptor (1878-1942)", exhib. cat. (Des Moines: Des Moines Art Center, 1980); Janis Conner and Joel Rosenkranz, "Rediscoveries in American Sculpture: Studio Works, 1893-1939" (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989), pp. 27-33.
Notes:
1. Bertha H. Smith,"Two Women Who
Collaborate in Sculpture," "Craftsman" 8
(August 1905): 623-33
2. See "A Young Woman Sculpture,"
"Broadway Magazine"18 (April 1907):
96-97.
3. Susan P. Casteras,"Abastenia St. Leger
Eberle's White Slave,""Woman's Art Journal"
(spring/summer, 1986): 32-36. For contemporary
accounts of the sculpture, see
Howard Vincent O'Brien, "Loathsome,
Brutal and Indecent," "Art" 1 (August
1913): 158-59; and "A Sculptress Who
Has Caught the American Rhythm,"
"Current Opinion" 55 (August 1913):
124-25.

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