St. Leger Eberle, Abastenia (1878-1942) Photographs of her Sculptures, Five Signed Examples.
Including black-and-white silver gelatin images mounted on board of the following works: Hurdy Gurdy in clay; Girl Skating in bronze; Windy Doorstep in clay; Skirt Dancer, likely bronze; Dancing Children in clay; notes on versos of the mounts, some noting the name of the holding museum; some mount corners chipped and broken, affecting Girl Skating's mount most seriously, the photographs themselves not damaged; sizes vary, most images approximately 7 x 9 in. (5)
St. Leger Eberle's most famous work, The White Slave, was exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show, where its content, a barely pubescent nude girl under the cloak of a leering older man in the process of offering her for sale, proved controversial. The juxtaposition of the nude female form as an object of exploitation did not suit the taste of many contemporary observers. St. Leger Eberle's studio was on New York's Lower East Side, and her subjects were predominantly the poor and working-class children who inhabited the neighborhood. She felt a personal responsibility as an artist to "see for people -- reveal them to themselves and each other."
