Girl Skating, 1907
Bronze, light brown patina
13 x 11 x 6 1/2 in
Biography
Abastenia St. Leger Eberle was born in Webster City, Iowa on April 6th, 1878. She spent her youth in Canton, Ohio and Puerto Rico. During her youth she began to sculpt in clay the native life and scenes she observed. In 1899 Eberle started studying at the Art Students’ League with Kenyon Cox, C.Y. Harvey, and George Grey Barnard.
In 1904 and 1905 she collaborated with Anna Hyatt Huntington on a few group sculptures. Eberle sculpted the human figures and Anna Huntington modeled the animals. In the early 1900s Eberle also spent time in Italy and Paris where she had some of her work cast.
Eberle focused her sculptures on simple human themes with careful attention to the mass and movement of the piece. She was inspired by the writings of Jane Addams to create sculptures with social as well as artistic significance. This lead Eberle to frequent the lower East Side of New York City, as a result a number of her sculpture subjects came from viewing the people who lived there, especially the children.
During her life she was a member of the National Sculpture Society and an associate of the National Academy of Design. Eberle’s work can be found in numerous public collections including: The Detroit Institute of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina.
