Robert Louis Stevenson, by William Strang, R.A.

Portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94)

William Strang (1859-1921)

1893

Etching

Source: Newbolt, Plate XXI

This "charming and sympathetic portrait of a 'brither Scot'" was executed from a drawing made at "Skerry-vore" (Newbolt 11). [Commentary continues below.]

Robert Louis Stevenson sitemap

Image capture, caption, and commentary by Jacqueline Banerjee.

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Skerryvore was the Stevensons' own house in Bournemouth on the south coast, which they named after one of the most iconic works of Stevenson's uncle, Robert Stevenson — a lighthouse off the west coast of Scotland (see Colvin 380). Stevenson was in Bournemouth for about three years altogether, from 1885-87, for the sake of his health. According to perhaps the most important expert on etching in the nineteenth century, the art historian A. M. Hind, this is one of the select number of works by Strang that "stand without qualification among the noblest classics in the whole history of etching" (330). Stevenson died the year after it was executed.

References

Colvin, Sidney, ed. The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson to His Family and Friends. Vol. I. New York: Scribner's, 1907. Internet Archive. Contributed by the University of Michigan. Web. 10 March 2015.

Hind, A. M. A Short History of Engraving and Etching. London: Constable, 1908.

Newbolt, Frank. Etchings of William Strang, A.R.A.. London: G. Newnes / New York: Scribner's, [1907]. Internet Archive. Contributed by the University of California Libraries. Web. 10 March 2015.

Created 10 March 2015