Skip to content
Home
Favourites
0
Advanced search
Shopping cart
0
Register
Log in
Images of Edinburgh
Browse map
Area A - Z
Browse by date
Exhibitions
Current exhibition
All exhibitions
Collections
About the collections
Browse by theme
Subject A - Z
The image library for the collections of Edinburgh Libraries and Museums and Galleries
Images of Edinburgh
Browse map
Area A - Z
Browse by date
Exhibitions
Current exhibition
All exhibitions
Collections
About the collections
Browse by theme
Subject A - Z
Subject matches "Oceania" or its children
Back to search results
"Diplomatic relations; or Donat himself", p.15
Osbourne, Lloyd, 1888, Photograph
Item
of 78
"Diplomatic relations; or Donat himself", p.15
"Diplomatic relations; or Donat himself", p.15
Add to favourites
Share
Item record
About this image
Related
Location
Category
Museums & Galleries Item
Item no
19287
Title
p.15, Diplomatic relations; or Donat himself in our kitchen
Description
Margaret, Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson are gathered round a stove outdoors with Francois Donat-Rimarau. Franny is sitting on the ground putting something in the oven. Trees can be seen in the background.
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
9.5 x 13.6 cm
Type
Photograph
Location
Writers' Museum
Francois Donat-Rimarau was the half-French, half-Tahitian acting French Vice-Resident (or interior minister) of the Paumotus Islands. He came to visit the Stevensons as soon as the Casco arrived at Fakarava in September 1888.
The Stevensons were in Fakarava from 9th to 25th September, and stayed in a traditional platform house that Taniera Mahinui had found for them to stay in. Stevenson writes of the house on its platform, and how they found an old rusty stove lying unused under the platform. They removed the stove and restored it to use outside the house as a kitchen.
The Paumotus Islands are part of the Tuamotu-Paumotu group of atolls in French Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean. Fakarava is the second largest of the atoll and has the best harbour of the group.
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).
Robert Louis Stevenson spent the latter years of his life both travelling and resident in the Pacific. The family chartered the 'Casco' in San Francisco and spent several weeks travelling in French Polynesia, including an extended stay in Tahiti where Stevenson recovered from a bout of illness. After this the Stevenson group continued to Honolulu, Hawaii, where they landed in January 1889. In the summer of 1889 Stevenson embarked on a six month voyage through the Gilbert Islands to Samoa aboard the 'Equator'. It was here that Stevenson bought an estate he named Vailima. After another voyage, aboard the trading steamer the 'Janet Nicoll', Stevenson returned to Vailima. 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.
Exhibitions with this item
Other views of this item
Related images
Related subjects
People
>
Entertainment and sports
>
Authors
Places
>
Oceania
>
Paumotus Islands
Sport and leisure
>
Activities
>
Eating and drinking
More like this
Rights and purchasing
Option
Price
Digital File
Electronic file 72 dpi JPEG
£7.32
(inc. VAT 20%)
Add
Digital File
Electronic File 300 dpi TIFF
£37.20
(inc. VAT 20%)
Add
You can view and use digital images for personal and educational use. For more information, read our
policy on image use
.
If you wish to use our images for commercial use, please
contact us
.