Robert Louis Stevenson

Maker Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American, 1848 - 1907)

Collections

American Sculpture

ClassificationsSCULPTURE

Date1889

Mediumbronze

Dimensionsdiameter: 17 3/4 in. (45.1 cm.) overall: 25 1/2 × 28 1/4 × 1 3/4 in. (64.8 × 71.8 × 4.4 cm.)

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of Stephen Royce

Status

On view

Label TextBest known for his monumental public sculpture, Augustus Saint-Gaudens also crafted numerous portrait medallions of his friends, inspired by Renaissance medals he had seen in Rome. He made this relief of Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson--famous for Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde--when Stevenson visited the United States in 1887. Saint-Gaudens portrays the writer propped up in bed because Stevenson was bedridden with tuberculosis while Saint-Gaudens worked on the bronze. The deliberate informality of the portrait, showing the author's unkempt hair, wrinkled bedclothes, and cigarette held between thin fingers, is an example of Saint-Gaudens's naturalistic approach to sculpture. When Stevenson died seven years later, casts of Saint Gaudens's portrait became widely sought-after commeorative items sold through such venues as Tiffany & Co.

Object number73.2