Robert Louis Stevenson, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, modeled 1887, cast 1899

Augustus Saint-GaudensAmerican, 1848–1907

Robert Louis Stevenson

modeled 1887, cast 1899 · Sculpture-Relief · 27.7 × 44.5 cm

Can I see it?

Yes, on view now

Where is “Robert Louis Stevenson” now? Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, 3rd Floor, 17A, Washington, D.C. Yes, on view now. Checked September 25, 2026.

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Washington, D.C., United States

RoomLuce Foundation Center, 3rd Floor, 17A

Closed· opens at 11:30 AM

On public display.

Checked: 15 days ago
In this state since: Sep 25, 2026
Source: The museum

On the map Museum page

About the sculpture

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was a Scottish author, poet, and travel writer whose literary works include such well-known titles as Treasure Island (1883), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), and A Child's Garden of Verses (1885). Stevenson traveled to the United States in 1887 in search of a place to soothe his chronic tuberculosis, considering both Colorado and the Adirondacks in New York. Augustus Saint-Gaudens became a fan of Stevenson's writing after reading New Arabian Nights (1882), a collection of short stories, and encouraged their mutual friend William H. Low to arrange an introduction. The meeting took place in September 1887 at the Hotel Albert on Eleventh Street in New York City. Saint-Gaudens quickly expressed interest in making a bas-relief of the author. The portrait shows Stevenson reclining on a sofa, propped up with pillows and with a stack of papers on his lap.

Read on

The inscription at the top of the relief is a poem from Stevenson's Underwoods (1887) dedicated to Low, which reads: "Youth now flees on feathered foot / Faint and fainter sounds the flute / . . . Where hath fleeting beauty led? / To the doorway of the dead / Life is over, life was gay / We have come the primrose way." Stevenson and Saint-Gaudens became close friends during their modeling sessions and stayed in contact even after Stevenson moved to the South Pacific. Stevenson died in Samoa at the age of forty-four. The bas-relief of Stevenson became extremely popular and was reproduced in several different bronze castings and electrotype editions, some with changes in decorative detail, design, and selected inscription.

Smithsonian American Art Museum