Mary Abastenia St. Leger Eberle (1878-1942)

'Windy Doorstep'

Details

Mary Abastenia St. Leger Eberle (1878-1942)
'Windy Doorstep'
inscribed 'A.S.L. Eberle 1910' (on the base)--stamped 'S. Klaber & Co. Founders. N.Y.' (along the base)
bronze with brown patina
13¾ in. (35 cm.) high

Literature

J. Conner and J. Rosenkranz, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture: Studio Works 1893-1939, Houston, Texas, 1989, pp. 29-30, another example illustrated.
A.S.L. Eberle, The East Side in Sculpture, The Macbeth Gallery, New York, 1921, another example illustrated.
L.R. Noun, Abastenia St. Leger Eberle, Sculptor, Des Moines, Iowa, 1980, pp. 8, 9, 11, fig. 13, another example illustrated.
G.B. Opitz, ed., Dictionary of American Sculptors, Poughkeepsie, New York, 1984, p. 112.
B.G. Proske, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, Murrell's Inlet, South Carolina, 1968, pp. 153-154, another example illustrated.
C.S. Rubinstein, American Women Sculptors: A History of Women Working in Three Dimensions, Boston, Massachusetts, 1990, pp. 215-216, another example illustrated.
A.A. Weinman, The National Sculpture Society in Cooperation with the Trustees of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Contemporary American Sculpture, New York, 1929, pp. 94-95, another example illustrated.

Lot Essay

Mary Abastenia St. Leger Eberle was fascinated with the working-class way of life of New York City's Lower East Side. Along with contemporaries such as John Sloan, George Luks and Robert Henri, Eberle found the city's gritty atmosphere to be artistically inspiring. Conceived in 1910 in Woodstock, New York, Windy Doorstep captures a street sweeper's feminine essence while simultaneously encapsulating the city's labor-intensive routine: "Typically intrigued by the gestures of people she was living among, Eberle created a dynamic composition of a hearty woman bending in her task, billowing skirts and the strong diagonal line of the broom handle drawing the eye down and right in a sweeping motion. The bronze was awarded the Helen Foster Barnett Prize by the National Academy of Design in 1910, and over the next seven years casts were purchased by the Newark Museum, Worcester Art Museum, Peabody Institute, and Carnegie Institute." (J. Conner and J. Rosenkranz, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture: Studio Works 1893-1939, Houston, Texas, 1989, p. 30)

More from Fine American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture

View All