Robert Louis Stevenson and Samoan chief

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

19748

Title

p. 52, Robert Louis Stevenson and Samoan chief

Description

Robert Louis Stevenson stands on woven mats beside a Samoan chief. Stevenson is wearing white trousers tucked into laced up leather boots; a white shirt and tie and a scarf tied around his waist. His left hand is placed on his waist and his is holding a hat in his other hand. The Samoan chief is wearing a white jacket and wrap-a-round skirt. They are standing against a wall covered in thick foliage.

Artist / maker

Davis, John

Date

1889

Size

20 x 13.8 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Writers' Museum

The Samoan Islands are located in the South Pacific and lie halfway between Hawaii and Australia. The capital Apia, is situated on Upolu one of the largest of the 10 islands.

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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Related subjects

Clothing and dress > Garments > Skirts

People > Adults > Men

People > Entertainment and sports > Authors

Places > Oceania > Samoa

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