Abastenia St. Leger Eberle (1878-1942)
Omar Khayyam Bookends
inscribed 'Copyright. / 1913 / A. Eberle.' (on the back) and 'CAST BY GRIFFOUL NEWARK N.J.' and 'TIFFANY & Co. / NEW YORK' (along the base); inscribed 'Copyright. / 1913 / A. Eberle.' (on the back) and 'CAST BY GRIFFOUL NEWARK N.J.' (along the base), respectively
bronze with reddish brown patina, each
6 1/4in high (15.9cm high), each
Modeled in 1913.

Footnotes:

Provenance
Private collection, New Jersey.

Literature
'Noted Sculpture in M. U. Museum,' The Missourian Magazine: A Monthly Supplement to the University Missourian, March 1915, p. 1, another example listed.
L.R. Noun, Abastenia St. Leger Eberle: Sculptor (1878-1942), exhibition catalogue, Des Moines, Iowa, 1980, p. 13, no. 18, another example illustrated.
C.S. Rubinstein, American Women Sculptors: A History of Women Working in Three Dimensions, Boston, Massachusetts, 1990, p. 215, another example listed.

Abastenia St. Leger Eberle's Omar Khayyam Bookends is a rare subject in the artist's oeuvre depicting a classical male figure. Eberle was highly praised for her sculptures of women and children engaging in everyday life and had a predilection for female models, but was often criticized for her depiction of the male form. Consequently, her depictions of the male figure are fewer in number and are only found in Eberle's body of work when depicting the classical idealized male form in mythical or exotic subjects, such as in the present work that appealed to the more conventional buyer. As Louise R. Noun astutely pointed out in her introduction to the 1980 exhibition of Eberle's work at the Des Moines Art Center, 'one might conclude that society deemed it acceptable for women to depict males when the subject matter was literary or allegorical but that society regarded with considerably less favor male subjects related to everyday contemporary life.' (L.R. Noun, Abastenia St. Leger Eberle: Sculptor (1878-1942), exhibition catalogue, Des Moines, Iowa, 1980, p. 13)

The subject of Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), the prominent Persian mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and poet is an interesting one. Eberle's inspiration for the subject of Khayyam likely originates from the widely popular Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám by British author Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1883). Published anonymously in 1859, Fitzgerald translated the poems of Khayyem to English. Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám mocked traditional values and emphasized the importance of enjoying and appreciating the sensual pleasures of life. By the time Eberle modeled Omar Khayyam in 1913, Fitzgerald's translation was widely popular in both literary and art circles, especially with Bohemians. The text was considered so popular that Khayyam clubs were established in major cities across the country and numerous cheap, pocket-size editions of Fitzgerald's work let people tote the book with them and read it whenever and wherever they wished.

In the present work, Eberle depicts Khayyam sitting cross-legged with a pleasant and peaceful expression reading a scroll, possibly the poem translated by Fitzgerald, and holds it unrolled from knee-to-knee. Eberle's decision to depict Khayyam minimally clothed and in a complex cross-legged position allows her to demonstrate her perceptive abilities as a modeler and is an attempt to showcase her understanding of male anatomical proportions. Eberle would repeat this approach successfully in later works, such as in Victory modeled in 1915. Khayyam's female companion sits in a similar fashion holding a bowl in one hand and a bird in the other. The female figure can possibly be interpreted as the personification of one of the stanzas of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám or another poem written by Khayyam. The female figure's similarly complex position and the way that the intricate draperies cling to her body allow Eberle to demonstrate her mastered abilities as a modeler.