About this artwork
Robert Louis Stevenson did not think that this platinum print looked quite like him. He wrote to his cousin, Bob, in October 1885: 'Dew-Smith has taken a photograph of me, which is like you, drunk; very odd, it has your nose instead of mine'. Nevertheless this portrait is one of the best ever made of Stevenson who was a very difficult sitter.
Updated before 2020
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artist:
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title:Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850 - 1894. Essayist, Poet and Author
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date created:June 1885
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materials:Platinum/palladium print
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measurements:36.90 x 29.20 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Purchased 1986
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accession number:PGP 114.1
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gallery:
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depicted:
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A.G. Dew Smith
A.G. Dew Smith
A.G. Dew Smith was an amateur photographer who was active in the 1880s and 1890s. He worked as a lens grinder at the Observatory in the University of Cambridge. His photographic portraits are close and intense and the dense black and white of the platinum printing gives his images dramatic impact.