On Avenue A by St. Leger in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2022

Title: On Avenue A

Artist: Mary Abastenia St. Leger Eberle (American, Webster City, Iowa 1878–1942 New York)

Date: 1914

Culture: American

Medium: Bronze

Dimensions: 14 1/2 × 8 × 5 1/2 in. (36.8 × 20.3 × 14 cm)

Credit Line: Purchase, Friends of the American Wing Fund, 2021

Accession Number: 2021.269

In the early twentieth century, Avenue A on New York’s Lower East Side was a teeming, vibrant locale for recent immigrants. In 1914 Eberle moved to nearby Madison Street and modeled On Avenue A, two girls dancing in the street to the hurdy gurdy, a crank-turned musical instrument. A committed social activist and suffragist, Eberle saw her art as means of expressing the beauty of the human experience regardless of class or origin. Here she presents a compassionate view of the urban poor at play, focusing on the unreserved happiness of the duo with symmetrical poses, animated faces, and swirling skirts.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/855929