 In 1890 she was the first female student to win the School's Haldane Travelling Scholarship bursary which she used to travel to Paris to study with Gustave Courtois at the Académie Colarossi.Courtois shared a studio with Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret and Dean may have been influenced by his paintings of women in traditional costumes.Stevenson first exhibited her work in 1894 at the Glasgow Institute and exhibited there regularly until 1910.