Abbott Thayer was moved by the writing of Robert Louis Stevenson, whose dramatic characterizations of human conflict resonated with the artist.

The painting features a young woman clothed in a classical white gown, embellished with wings and a halo.

[5][6]A later painting, Winged Figure Seated upon a Rock (Freer Gallery of Art), was another canvas begun as an alternative conception of the Stevenson Memorial, but was not completed until years later.

[7] The model for Stevenson Memorial was Bessie Price, a guest of the Thayer household that caught the attention of Mr.Thayer.

She had just traveled from Ireland to visit her siblings who worked in the household and decided to stay in America to be Thayer's servant.

She had previously posed for other paintings by the artist, including Portrait of Bessie Price, Young Woman (Metropolitan Museum of Art), and Seated Angel (Wadsworth Atheneum).

[8] Although Thayer never discussed the meaning of his angelic figures like the one in Stevenson Memorial, in 1912 he offered a general explanation: "Doubtless my lifelong passion for birds has helped to incline me to work wings into my pictures; but primarily I have put on wings probably more to symbolize an exalted atmosphere (above the realm of genre painting) where one need not explain the action of the figures".