Girl Skating

1906
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 772
Girl Skating is a sympathetic portrayal of a child hurtling forward on just one roller skate. She utters an excited cry, her outstretched arms balancing her body against the wind that sweeps back her hair and presses her ragged dress against her torso and thighs. The work reveals Eberle as an artist with a social conscience, who saw it as her mission to serve as "the specialized eye of society" through her statuettes of the urban poor, especially those living on New York’s Lower East Side. As she explained: "The children of the East Side play without restraint; their griefs and their joys are expressed with absolute abandon. . . . They are real—real as they can be. They express life."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Girl Skating
  • Artist: Mary Abastenia St. Leger Eberle (American, Webster City, Iowa 1878–1942 New York)
  • Date: 1906
  • Medium: Bronze
  • Dimensions: 13 x 11 1/4 x 6 1/4 in. (33 x 28.6 x 15.9 cm)
  • Classification: Sculpture
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1909
  • Object Number: 09.57
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

Audio

Cover Image for 4580. Girl Skating

4580. Girl Skating

0:00
0:00
We're sorry, the transcript for this audio track is not available at this time. Please email info@metmuseum.org to request a transcript for this track.

More Artwork

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

Feedback

We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.