Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907)

Robert Louis Stevenson, First Version

Details

Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907)
Robert Louis Stevenson, First Version
inscribed 'TO ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON/FROM HIS FRIEND AVGVSTVS/SAINT-GAVDENS NEW YORK/SEPTEMBER MDCCC/LXXXVII' (upper right)--inscribed with poem "To Will H. Low" from Underwoods (1887) by Stevenson (upper left)
bronze relief with brown patina
6 ½ x 13 ¼ in. (16.5 x 33.7 cm.)
Modeled circa 1887.

Provenance

Private collection, Paris, France.
Private collection, acquired from the above, circa 1912.
Private collection, by descent.
Sotheby's, New York, 18 May 2005, lot 139, sold by the above.
(Probably) Acquired by the present owner from the above.

Literature

W.H. Low, "Robert Louis Stevenson and Augustus Saint-Gaudens," A Chronicle of Friendship, 1873-1900, New York, 1908, pp. 390-92, another example referenced.
H. Saint-Gaudens, ed., The Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, vol. 1, New York, 1913, p. 394, another example referenced.
B. Hollingsworth, American Sculptors Series: Augustus Saint-Gaudens, New York, 1948, p. 23, another example illustrated.
J.W. Bond, "Augustus Saint-Gaudens: The Man and His Art," manuscript, Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation, National Park Service, Washington, D.C., 1968, pp. 76-78, another example referenced.
J.H. Dryfhout, "Robert Louis Stevenson," Metamorphoses in Nineteenth-Century Sculpture, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1975, pp. 183, 198-200, no. 23, another example illustrated.
J.H. Dryfhout, The Work of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Hanover, New Hampshire, 1982, pp. 173-74, no. 132, another example illustrated.
K. Greenthal, Augustus Saint-Gaudens: Master Sculptor, Boston, Massachusetts, 1985, pp. 119-21, 174, another example illustrated.

Brought to you by

William Haydock

whaydock@christies.com 212-636-2140

Lot Essay

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet and essayist best known for his celebrated writings, such as Treasure Island (1883) and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886). The present work includes an inscription of one of Stevenson's poems, "To Will H. Low," published in Underwoods in 1887. A fellow artist himself, Low arranged the sitting between Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Stevenson, which resulted in the present sculpture.

Stevenson posed for Saint-Gaudens in September of 1887, and the sculptor began modeling a portrait of the writer as a rectangular relief shortly thereafter. However, the artist soon concentrated instead on a circular design, which would be cast in various sizes. In 1902, Saint-Gaudens revisited his earliest design and authorized an edition of bronze casts based on the original rectangular model.

Other bronze rectangular reductions of Robert Louis Stevenson are in the collections of the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, New Hampshire; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts; The Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, France; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

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