The Big Bow

Ethel Myers is known for her insightful portrayals of working-class women of New York, often wearing exaggerated fashions, whether strolling the avenues or at the theatre. Her candid, lively assessment of contemporary social types—variously humorous or pointed—in her sculpture, drawings, and published illustrations, places her within a group of urban realist artists after the turn of the twentieth century. Myers’s small-scale painted plaster sculptures, usually individual figures of women, were frequently exhibited during the early 1910s, including nine at the seminal Armory Show in 1913. The Big Bow depicts a stylish young woman in a fur-trimmed coat, her face peeking out beneath a hat with oversized bow. While dating later, to around 1920 when Myers began working as a clothing and hat designer, the statuette reflects her ongoing interest in the psychology of attire and gesture.