"Lloyd Osbourne in Marquessas chief's full dress", p.53

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

19385

Title

p. 53, Mr Lloyd Osbourne in Marquessas chief's full dress

Description

Lloyd Osbourne poses for a studio portrait whilst wearing the dress of a Marquesan chief. He is carrying a fighting club in his right hand, decorated with a tiki face. He is wearing anklets, skirt, loin cloth, collar, and headdress made of shell and tortoiseshell on his forehead. A circular drum stands on the floor beside him.

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

Strong, Joseph D

Size

23.9 x 19.2 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Writers' Museum

This portrait was probably taken in the studio at Waikiki, by Joe Strong, Stevenson's stepson -in-law. There is a string attached to Lloyd's left hand, to keep him steady during the exposure.

Osbourne is wearing the same cheif's full dress seen worn by Moipu, a previous chief of Hiva Oa. Stevenson writes that the cape had in former days been made of dead women's hair.

Lloyd Osbourne was Robert Louis Stevenson's step-son.

The Marquesas Islands are situated in French Polynesia, in the southern Pacific Ocean. They are volcanic and are named after the Marquis of Cañete, who financially supported the Spanish Explorer Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira who disovered the islands in 1595.

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 > Accessories > Headdresses

Clothing and dress > Accessories > Staffs

Clothing and dress > Garments > Capes

Clothing and dress > Garments > Loin cloths

People > Adults > Men

People > Entertainment and sports > Authors

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