COUNT NERLI'S PORTRAIT OF R.L.S. [To the Editor of the
SPECTATOR.] Sin,—In Mr. J. A. Steuart's recently-published work, Robert Louis Stevenson—Man and Writer, issued by Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston and Co., an error occurs on p. 233 of the second volume relative to the portrait of R.L.S. by Count Nerli. The author says : " One such visitor was Signor Nerli, the Italian artist who painted Stevenson's portrait and was himself made the subject of a set of comic verses." In a footnote he says : " The Nerli portrait came into the posses- sion of Mr. J. R. Tyrell, of Sydney, who sold it to the late Sir Thomas Anderson Stuart," and that " It was recently sold at the Stuart sale in Sydney " and " It is now in the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh." These extracts from Mr. Steuart's book are incorrect. The Nerli portrait of R.L.S. mentioned above was sold by the artist himself to Messrs. Angus and Robertson, of Sydney, some twenty-five years ago. It then passed into the possession of Prof. Sir Thomas Anderson Stuart, of the Sydney University, from whose widow I purchased both the portrait and the journal of the artist containing the verses written by R.L.S. about Nerli.
These are still in my possession. The picture is a finished life-size portrait in oils signed by the artist and sitter both, and is not to be confused with another in Scotland,which I
believe to be a water-colour and much smaller reproduced as a frontispiece to Mr. Steuart's second volume.
I would be pleased if you would publish this correction, as I intend forwarding this portrait by Nerli to Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge during the coming year and much misunderstanding may occur through the error.—I
139a and 141 Castlereagh Street, Sydney.
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