Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson, son of the lighthouse engineer, is best known as the author of 'Treasure Island', 1882, and 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde', 1886. His life began in Edinburgh and ended on Samoa in the South Pacific, which is where this portrait was painted. Dogged by tuberculosis for most of his adult life, the writer had to look for climates more favourable than that of his damp native city. In 1880 he married the American, Mrs Fanny Osbourne, who gave him much needed encouragement and affection.