(c.1744 - 75), architect; pupil of William Chambers 1760 - 6; exh.Free SA 1762 - 3, SA 1765 - 8, RA 1770 - 3; ARA 1770; d. Rome.
1774 - 5 Florence (by 13 Jan. 1774), Rome (Apr. - Aug. - ), Naples (1774), Rome (d. 27 Jun. 1775)
On 27 August 1773 the 4th Earl of Rochford told William Hamilton in Naples that 'Mr Stevens, a very noted and ingenious Architect', was proposing soon 'to visit the principal Cities in Italy and to remain there with his Family for two or three years'.1 On 13 January 1774 Stevens, 'Architetto e Professore nell'Accademia di Londra', was elected to the Accademia del Disegno at Florence.2 He was in Rome by Easter 1774, when 'Eduardo Stiveny - Inglese non Cattolico - 23' was living on the Strada Gregoriana.3 In Rome Mr and Mrs Stevens were among the closest friends of Thomas Banks and his wife,4 and they knew Ozias Humphry, Romney and Joseph Wright of Derby. On 5 August 1774 William Chambers wrote to him in Rome, urging him to study hard and to 'see with Your own eyes'; he was pleased to hear of Stevens's 'perfect recovery', the first indication of poor health.5 Sometime in 1774 Stevens was at Pompeii where he made drawings of the Temple of Isis (see Thomas Hardwick).
Stevens died in Rome on 27 June 1775, aged 31, and was buried near the Pyramid of Cestius; he left a widow and a daughter.6 Mrs Stevens was still in Rome in July, proposing to return to England with Joseph Wright and his wife in about a month's time; Humphry urged her to stay on as 'every day will make you more familiar with your loss'.7 Mrs Stevens replied from Leghorn on 18 August that she was sailing to Marseilles with a Roman lady companion, and that she hoped Humphry would be able to complete her husband's portrait; meanwhile she rebuked Humphry for having written, in the third week of her widowhood, that she would be the 'only object' for thirty or forty bachelors.8 Joseph Wright told Humphry from Parma on 24 July that Stevens was to have paid Jenkins for shipping his (Wright's) pictures back to England.9
A sale of Stevens's 'valuable collection of Casts', 'most of which were collected during his travels in Italy', was held at Langford's in 1776 (7 Feb.). A manuscript Common Place Book with Copies of Letters, Remarks & Observations of a Journey made from England through France & Italy commencing September 1773. By Ed Stevens Architect (ending in June 1775; priv. coll. in 1951), mentions meeting with the Duke of Cumberland and Zoffany.
1. Add.51315, f.13. 2. Wynne 1990, 538. 3. AVR sa, S.Andrea delle Fratte 1774. 4. Bell, Banks, 26. 5. J. Harris, Chambers, 21 - 3. 6. Nylander, 246 - 7. DBA. 7. Humphry corr.MSS,
hu/2/31 (18 Jul. 1775). 8. Humphry corr.MSS, hu/2/32. 9. W. Bemrose, Wright of Derby, 37.