WOMAN IN ART
In powerful contrast to such youthful happiness, Miss Eberle has produced another phase of socialistic conditions in a group that speaks for itself, "The White Slave." When the writer came upon that startling presentation of one of the most cruel and criminal practices in the civilized world, the shock was poignant and there flashed to mind two words—Heaven and Hell! Innocence and crime! A monument to depraved human nature. It shows a coarse, repulsive man, outstretched hand and hideous mouth, auctioning off a young girl to the highest bidder. His right hand holds her two wrists firmly behind her back. Her head is bowed low, her hair hiding in part her shamed face. By the position of the knees, they almost refuse to support the nude body. There goes many a cry to heaven against such atrocities, and humanitarians everywhere are doing much toward answering such prayers. Why should not the artist proclaim against an evil as well as to lift high a "Victory," a "Horace Mann" with arm affectionately about a boy who looks love and homage up into the strong face and clear eyes of the child-lover and life-saver.
It is an understood fact that illustration, in this present, is a decided factor in commercial and literary progress, proving that adults as well as children are influenced by pictures, and that the fine arts no less than the liberal arts have a mission beyond beauty, even a didactic use. But sculpture and painting as representatives of the fine arts have, perhaps, the highest, the most deep-seated influence for beauty and character and uplift.
Having chosen one's life work, the circumstances that hedge the path broaden the ideals, lighten the labor, and lift the spirit to higher aspirations, whatever the subjective, or the objective.
Miss Eberle's work seems progressing by these steps.
"The Windy Doorstep" gives the sense of a vigorous, housewifely woman, who does her duty rain or shine. Her clasp on the broom proves her no novice with the anti-dust brigade; the practicality of the artist has made her sweep with the wind, and it was a regular March wind at that.
"The Rag Picker" is a most pathetic figure of an old woman bending over an alley can; it tells its own story. We have all seen it, and are thankful its repetition in real life is becoming yearly less.
Abestenia St. Leger Eberle studied first with George Gray Barnard for three years. In 1904 she was awarded a bronze medal at the St. Louis Exposition. "The Girl On Roller Skates" was bought by the Metropolitan Museum in 1907; "The Windy Doorstep" was awarded the Helen Foster
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