A blooming flower Gardner

November 14, 2023 by Jessica In Boston, USA Leave a comment

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Isabella Stewart was born in New York City in 1840, daughter of a wealthy linen merchant. At age 16, she and her family moved to Paris, and during a visit to Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli’s collection of Renaissance art in Milan (the Museo Poldi Pezzoli), she vowed to create something similar, should she ever come into some money of her own.

During her time in Paris, she went to school with Julia Gardner, whose brother she met shortly after returning to New York in 1858. His name was John Lowell “Jack” Gardner, and he was apparently one of the most eligible bachelors in Boston. They married in 1860, and remained in Boston for the rest of Jack’s life.

After the deaths of her only child, her sister-in-law Julia, and a miscarriage, Isabella and Jack traveled across Europe for about a year in an attempt to lift her spirits after she became depressed and withdrew from society. The pair continued to travel extensively in subsequent years, and in 1891, they began their art collection after Isabella inherited $1.75 million from her father, acquiring paintings and sculptures as well as tapestries, photographs, and manuscripts, among other objects.

Once Jack passed in 1898, Isabella set about realizing their shared dream of establishing a museum for their collection. Thus the eponymous museum was built, inspired by the Renaissance palaces of Venice they both loved so much. The building was designed by Willard T. Sears, though Isabella was heavily involved in the process.

The museum finally opened to the public in 1903. Its collection includes more than 7,500 paintings, sculptures, pieces of furniture, textiles, silver, and ceramics, as well as 1,500 rare books, and 7,000 archival objects from various origins.

In 1990, thirteen pieces were stolen form the museum, including The Concert by Johannes Vermeer (the first piece acquired by Isabella), and The Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt. The case remains unsolved, and the empty frames belonging to the missing pieces are still on display.

Apparently some people believed the building to be a real Venetian palazzo brought over from Italy, but it is an original construction — although it does include architectural elements taken from from European Gothic and Renaissance structures. In 2004, Renzo Piano was commissioned to create a new wing for the museum, which was completed in 2012.

The museum’s most famous architectural feature is undoubtedly its courtyard, which is surrounded by three floors of art galleries and is filled with plants and blooming flowers year-round.