Portrait of the Stephens family

Francis Edmund (Frank) Stephens (1884-1948) was born in Rathgar, Dublin, the eldest son of solicitor Henry (Harry) Francis Colcough Stephens (1856-1935) and his wife Annie Isabella (1863-1949), née Synge, sister of the playwright John Millington Synge. The Synge family connection was a powerful and formative influence on Frank Stephens. Henry Stephens is flanked by his younger son Edward and daughter Claire; his wife Annie Isabella sits on a blanket with their son Frank. This photograph was most likely taken by John Millington Synge, in the grounds of the ancestral Synge seat at Castle Kevin, Co. Wicklow.