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Isabella Stewart Gardner

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

“Don’t spoil a good story

by telling the truth.”

– Isabella Stewart Gardner

sabella Stewart Gardner was born in New York City on April 14, Isabella Gardner continued with their
1840, into a well-to-do family. Her father, David Steward, made his shared plan to purchase a plot of land
Ifortune importing Irish linen and later through investments. in the Fens (Fenway Court) and selected This portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner
The family lived on University Place in the West Village. Isabella was local architect Willard T. Sears, who was taken in 1888.
privately educated in New York and “finished” abroad. A Paris had done a good bit of work on their
schoolmate, Julia Gardner, introduced Isabella to her brother, John home on Beacon Street, to draw up plans for a museum. At the time,
“Jack” Lowell Gardner Jr. there were almost no other buildings in the area.
In 1860, a few days before her 20th birthday, Isabella Stewart The influence of the Gardners enjoyment while staying at the
married Jack Gardner in Grace Church in New York City. They moved Palazzo Barbaro is quite evident in the design and construction of the
to his hometown of Boston and settled into a house in the fashionable museum. When Jack and Isabella visited in the summer of 1897, they
Back Bay at 152 Beacon Street – a wedding gift from her father. gathered architectural fragments for their eventual gallery, buying
In 1863, the Gardners had a son, John Lowell Gardner III, called columns, windows, and doorways to adorn every floor, as well as reliefs,
Jackie, who died of pneumonia at less than two years old. In 1867, on balustrades, capitals, and statuary from the Roman, Byzantine, Gothic,
the advice of her doctor and hoping to rouse her from her depression, and Renaissance periods.
Jack Gardner took Isabella to northern Europe and Russia. This was the Construction of Isabella’s
first of many trips abroad, later including Egypt and the Middle East museum began in 1899 and was
(1874-75), and Asia (1883-84). Isabella reveled in travel, keeping completed in late 1901. Willard
elaborate journals of her visits. Sears learned early that Isabella
Isabella was drawn to the intellectual life of Boston and Cambridge. was a challenging employer
In 1878, she attended the readings of Charles Eliot Norton, the and meant to play a more active
first professor of art history at Harvard University; he invited her to role in the design and the
join the Dante Society. With Norton’s encouragement, she began construction than most clients.
collecting rare books and manuscripts, beginning with early editions of She continually made changes,
Dante’s works. insisting that the workmen undo
In 1891, after years of collecting on a small, personal scale, Isabella and redo their work, and Sears
inherited $1.75 million upon her father’s death and was able to begin Throughout the year, the museum’s always- had to run interference between
collecting on a greatly expanded level. blooming Courtyard is transformed Isabella and his workers.
In 1884, Isabella and Jack Gardner first visited the Palazzo Barbaro, through a series of nine dramatic seasonal In 1901, Isabella moved into
a Venetian palace owned by Bostonians Daniel and Ariana Curtis. The displays that reflect Isabella’s passion for the private fourth-floor living
palazzo became the gathering place of a group of American and English gardens. The architecture demonstrates quarters and devoted herself to
Expatriates, including the painters John Singer Sargent, James McNeil the Gardners’ love of ancient European personally arranging works of art
and Middle East design.
Whistler, and Ralph Curtis, and the art connoisseur Bernard Berenson. in the historic galleries on the
Palazzo Barbaro became a major source of inspiration for Isabella in the first three floors. In 1901 and 1902, Isabella installed her collection of
creation of her museum in Boston. paintings, sculptures, tapestries, furniture, manuscripts, rare books, and
Isabella met the charming and intelligent Harvard student Bernard decorative arts. She continued to acquire works and change the
Berenson in 1886. With funds from the Gardners and others, Berenson installations for the rest of her life.
set off for Florence in 1887 to pursue a literary career but soon The unsolved theft of 13 works of art that took place on March 18,
discovered his true calling as a connoisseur of Italian Renaissance art. 1990, continues to plague the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
He became Isabella’s chief art advisor, helping her acquire many of the Works by Edgar Degas, Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, and
masterpieces in her collection. Berenson Edouard Manet were taken in the dark of night allegedly by two men
wrote of Isabella, “She lives at a rate and posing as police officers who tied up the on-duty security and hastily
intensity, with a reality that makes other left with their plunder, cutting paintings out of frames and seeming to
lives seem pale, thin, and shadowy.” have no method to their selection of goods.
Upon purchasing Rembrandt’s Self There is a $10 million reward for
Portrait, Age 23 in 1896, Isabella and her information leading directly to the
husband Jack decided their ambitions as safe return of the stolen works.
collectors required more space than their Conspiracy theories and tales of
residence permitted, and first began to secret locations of the artwork
consider the idea of a museum. At first, continue to come into the public eye
they considered expanding their current but as of yet, they have produced
home, combining two houses on Beacon no results or return of the missing
Street. However, as Isabella’s collection and masterpieces.
ambitions continued to grow, Jack felt it For more information visit
would be more sensible to buy land and www.gardnermuseum.org/
build a new building for the museum with organization/theft.
Isabella’s first major purchase following
receiving her inheritance from her apartments for themselves within it.
father: Rembrandt’s Jack Gardner died suddenly of a stroke An empty frame shows where Rembrandt’s
Self Portrait, Age 23. on December 10, 1898. Six weeks later, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee was
displayed before being stolen in 1990.
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is located at 25 Evans Way in Boston. For information
February 2024 17
on the Museum, its hours, and directions, please visit www.gardnermuseum.org A new book,
Isabella Stewart Gardner: A Life is now available through the museum shop and online.