Stevens came from a family of ten children. His grandfather was a captain of a fishing vessel, and his father worked in a quarry and then as a florist. At the age of 13 he started a five year course of study in painting with Parker Perkins in Rockport. In 1909 he won a scholarship which enabled him to enter the school of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. After graduating he returned to Rockport. He served in France during the first world war, and did many watercolors during his stay. In 1921 he had his first one man show at the Boston Art Club and received his first major award--the William H. Clark Prize from the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington. He taught at Boston University (1925-26). One of his students there, Angelina Vannini, a portrait painter he was to marry in 1926. He then taught freehand work in the school of architecture at Princeton (1927-29). He and his wife travelled to Europe in 1929, but the stock market crash cut their trip short.
The couple settled in Rockport upon their return. In 1937 he became affiliated with the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC which was the beginning of him wintering in the south, teaching and painting in such places as Asheville, NC, Charleston, SC, and Savannah, GA. In 1944 he moved his studio to Conway, MA, and in 1951 to Vinal Haven, Maine.
The subject matter of Stevens' work includes rural landscapes, still lifes, farm and street scenes, marines, and portraits of old New England seafaring stock.
