Sea Treasures

Abastenia St. Leger EberleWW-1913-126269

1913·Bronze·24.9 × 36 × 27.4 cm (9 13/16 × 14 3/16 × 10 13/16 in.)

<p>In <em>Sea Treasures</em>, an adolescent girl inspects marine life along the shore at Coney Island, a popular leisure destination across classes at the turn of the 20th century. Her hiked-up skirt, rolled sleeves, and awkward pose—sensitively rendered by Abastenia St. Leger Eberle—suggest a figure grounded in the real world, caught in a moment of thought and action all her own. Born in Iowa and later based in New York, Eberle was a settlement-house worker and a sculptor who principally depicted women from urban immigrant communities in small-scale bronzes.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1913
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: 24.9 × 36 × 27.4 cm (9 13/16 × 14 3/16 × 10 13/16 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Abastenia St. Leger Eberle

Artist

Abastenia St. Leger Eberle

Sculpture

Abastenia St. Leger Eberle sculpted small bronze figures of poor immigrants on New York's Lower East Side, infusing her work with explicit social and political conviction. Her energetic compositions documented the urban poor with documentary precision while advancing a formal modernism rooted in observed life rather than idealization. Her 1913 Armory Show entry, The White Slave, addressed child prostitution and sparked immediate controversy, establishing sculpture as a vehicle for social critique. Throughout her career, Eberle remained committed to equal rights for women and to art's obligation to engage pressing contemporary issues.

Iowa, USA

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