"Pere Bruno Schouten" (with RLS and Fanny), P.25

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

19325

Title

p.25, Pere Bruno Schouten (with RLS and Fanny at Ori's back door)

Description

Robert Louis Stevenson sits on wooden stairs at Ori a Ori's (sub chief of the village of Tautira) house in Tahiti. With him is his wife Fanny and Pere Bruno Schouten. Stevenson is wearing a pareu (wrap a round skirt) and Fanny a long striped dress. Pere Bruno holds a hat and walking stick and wears long dark robes.

The image is from the photograph album entitled 'The Cruise of the Casco' of Robert Louis Stevenson's travels around Hawaii and French Polynesia in 1888.

Artist / maker

Osbourne, Lloyd

Date

1888

Size

10.6 x 12.6 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Writers' Museum

This image was taken in November-December 1888. Princess Moe had organised for the Stevenson party to move into the house of Ori, the sub chief of the village and deacon of the Protestant Church in Tautira after it became apparent that they were to have an extended stay on the Island. Ori, and his family moved to another house during this time.

Pere Bruno Schouten was the Roman Catholic priest of Tautira. He became very friendly with the Stevenson's as his house was next door to where the Stevenson's were staying. Stevenson's mother, Margaret, was delighted that Pere Bruno wanted to use her son as an example of cheerfulness in adversity and simple taste of clothes in one of his sermons.

Tahiti is one of the Windward Islands of French Polynesia, in the southern Pacific Ocean. The capital is Papeete which is situated on the northwest coast.

Born in Edinburgh on 13th November 1850, Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, playwright and travel writer. Although he was plagued by ill health all his life, he was extraordinarily well-travelled, visiting Europe, America and the South Seas. He married American born Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne in 1880 and is best-known for works like Treasure Island (1883), Kidnapped and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (both 1886). From the late 1880s, Stevenson stayed in the South Pacific with his family on his own estate in Vailima in Samoa. He died here on the 3rd December 1894 of a brain haemorrhage at the age of 44, leaving what many consider his best work, Weir of Hermiston (1896) unfinished.

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Homes > Residential buildings > Houses

People > Entertainment and sports > Authors

People > Politics and government > Chiefs

People > Religion > Clergy

Places > Oceania > Tahiti

"Pere Bruno Schouten" (with RLS and Fanny), p.25