Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/370

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Stevenson
356
Stevenson

settlement at Goa, he wrote to his father an account of the journey, which is printed in Hakluyt's 'Principall Navigations,' in Purchas's 'Pilgrimes,' and in John Hamilton Moore's 'New and Complete Collection of Voyages and Travels' [1780], i. 337-8. He laboured as a Jesuit missionary at Goa for forty years; on 10 Feb. 1587-8 he was made spiritual coadjutor, for five years he was rector of Salsette College, and for a time he was minister of the domus professorum at Goa. He was the first to make a scientific study of Canarese, the vernacular Malabar tongue, and he also learnt Hindostani, in both of which tongues he published manuals of piety and grammars. He is said to have protected Englishmen at Goa, but his recommendation of Sir Robert Shirley [q. v.] to another Jesuit was held to throw suspicion on Shirley (Cal. State Papers, East Indies, 1515-1616, no. 574). Stephens died at Goa in 1619, aged 70.

Three of his books, all published after his death, are extant in the National Library at Lisbon: 1. 'Doctrina Christa em Lingua Bramana-Canarin,' em Rachol, 1622, 8vo. 2. 'Arte da Lingua Canarin,' em Rachol, 1640, 8vo; a copy of this appears to be also extant at Goa, where it was reprinted in 1857, 8vo. 3. 'Discorso sobre a Vinda de Jesus Christo,' Goa, 1626, 1649, and 1654.

[Authorities cited; Cal. State Papers, East Indies, 1515-1616, nos. 239, 574; Voyage of François Pyrard, vol. ii. pp. xix, 269-70, Travels of Pietro della Valle, i. 162 sqq., and Voyage of Linschoten to the East Indies (these three in Hakluyt Soc. Publ.); José da Fonseca's City of Goa, Bombay, 1878, pp. 256 sqq.; Henry More's Hist. Prov. Angl.; Ribadeneira's, Southwell's, and De Backer's Bibl. Jesuit.; Oliver's Collections; Foley's Records, iii. 573-589, vii. 738, 1453; Archive Universal, Lisbon, January 1861; Indian Antiquary, vii. 117; Monier- Williams in Contemporary Rev. April 1878.]

STEVENSON, ROBERT ALAN MOWBRAY (1847–1900), painter and art critic, was the only son of the Scottish engineer, Alan Stevenson [q. v.], and of Margaret Jones, his wife. He was born at Edinburgh on 28 March 1847, and educated at Windermere and at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he took no honours, but graduated B.A. in 1871 and M.A. in 1882. He excelled as a gymnast and light-weight athlete; his favourite outdoor exercise was canoeing. His tastes in life were Bohemian, and the family profession did not attract him; but he was deeply interested in all the fine arts, especially the theory and practice. From boyhood he was on terms of affectionate intimacy with his first cousin, Robert Louis Stevenson [q. v.], his junior by three and a half years, who on the critical side of his mind owed much in youth to the stimulating company and influence of his cousin 'Bob.' For a year or two after taking his degree Stevenson continued to live with his widowed mother and sisters at Edinburgh, studying painting at the School of Art in that city. In 1873 he went to continue his studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Antwerp; then in Paris under Carolus Duran, and afterwards for several years at Barbizon and Grez. In 1876 he took with R. L. Stevenson the canoe trip on the Sambre, Meuse, and Somme, which is the subject of the 'Inland Voyage.' His work in landscape painting, exhibited at the Royal Academy and elsewhere, was interesting and competent; but his incapacity for self-assertion and lack of commercial instinct would probably have hampered his career as an artist, even had his executive powers been greater than they were. Theory was his element, and about 1881 (in which year he married Louisa, daughter of Theodore Pyrland, esq.) his friends, foremost among them Mr. W. E. Henley, began to urge that he should turn his powers of exposition to practical account. In 1882 he taught a painting-class of undergraduates at Cambridge, in connection with the work of Mr. Sidney Colvin as Slade professor. From 1883 to 1889 he contributed much to the 'Saturday Review' as a critic both of painting and music. In 1889 he was appointed professor of fine arts at University College, Liverpool, and, resigning that office in 1893, became for six years the regular art critic of the 'Pall Mall Gazette.' He was also a contributor to the 'Magazine of Art' and to the 'Portfolio' monographs. In the autumn of 1899 his constitution showed signs of breaking up, and he died in his house at Chiswick on 18 April 1900.

None of Stevenson's newspaper criticisms have yet been reprinted. His books published in his lifetime are : 'Engraving,' a translation from 'La Gravure' of Vicomte H. Delaborde, 1886; 'The Devils of Notre Dame ' (text to accompany illustrations by Joseph Pennell), 1894; 'Peter Paul Rubens' (reprinted, with additions, from 'Portfolio' monographs), 1898; 'The Art of Velasquez,' 1895; 'Velasquez' (the same text revised and expanded in Williamson's series of 'Great Masters'), 1899. An essay on Raeburn, accompanying a volume of reproductions from that master's works, was published posthumously (1900).

Stevenson was the leader of a new school