[Stevenson, Robert Louis]--Saint-Gaudens, Augustus.

The most celebrated and popular portrait by Saint-Gaudens, cast in various versions (with modifications) through the 1920s. Stevenson posed for Saint-Gaudens in New York in September 1887. The sculptor noted in Reminiscences, that he 'began modelling the medallion at his rooms in the Hotel Albert on Eleventh Street... All I had time to do from him then was the head, which I modeled in five sittings of two or three hours each. These were given me in the morning, while he, as was his custom, lay in bed propped up by pillows'. In 1899 copper electrotypes or galvanos were made by the Paris engraver Victor Janvier. Beginning in 1902, Saint-Gaudens had an edition of bronze and copper casts made with the copyright stamp in the lower right-hand corner, as here.

Saint-Gaudens (1848-1908) excelled as a sculptor and numismatist. He was responsible for the double eagle $20 gold piece, designed for the U.S. Mint in 1905-07.

The poem entitled 'To Robert Louis Stevenson' is the author's poem 'To Will H. Low', first published in Underwoods in 1887. It was Low who arranged for Stevenson to sit for Saint-Gaudens.