Abbott Handerson ThayerVerenigde Staten, 1849–1921Mag men het zien?
Washington D.C., Verenigde Staten
De eigenaar is bekend. Of het vandaag te zien is, zegt het museum niet, en gissen hebben wij niet geleerd.
Stevenson Memorial is a 1903 oil painting by the American artist Abbott Handerson Thayer, intended to commemorate the writer Robert Louis Stevenson. Though Thayer initiated several paintings with the intent of honoring Stevenson, Stevenson Memorial is the only version to survive the artist's revisions.
Apart from the title, our only clue to the subject of this work is the inscription "VAEA," the name of the mountain in Samoa where Robert Louis Stevenson is buried. Stevenson's poetic tales of men at war with themselves had dazzled Abbott Handerson Thayer, whose own life was marked by exaltation and despair. And, like the Scotsman's most memorable characters, the Stevenson Memorial carries a hidden story.
Smithsonian American Art Museum