Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Recently, the museum focused its special exhibit on the creation of the museum and Isabella Stewart Gardner’s role in the growth of this unique gallery. The exhibit, which focuses on the entire process from the museum’s inspi­ration to the completion of construction, includes diaries and letters of Gardner as well as photographs, blue­prints, arti­facts and quotes from friends during the time of devel­opment. Each is well-documented and shows a cher­ished side of the museum and its creator. Upon entering the exhibit, there are large copies of the blue­prints for the museum and a quote from the diary of architect Willard T. Sears. The quote describes Gardner’s essential and some­times persuasive role in building the museum, her frank rejection of some of the plans, and even her sacking of some of the masons. This outstanding opening to the exhibit sets the tone: Isabella Stewart Gardner, in spite of her straight­forward control procedure, cared very much about the museum and its benefits for the people of Boston.

In addition to letters, blue­prints and news­paper articles about the building of the museum, this collection also includes many of Gardner’s scrap­books, sketches, family photographs and minia­tures by her artist friends including Luisa Rabbia and John Singer Sergeant. Luisa Rabbia’s first exhi­bition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Travels with Isabella also provides an inter­esting and unex­pected contem­porary look at Isabella Gardner’s historic and fabled travels around the world The scrap­books were the most appealing part of the collection because they revealed the influ­ences that shaped the museum. The pages showed papyrus from Egypt and water­colors from China as well as written entries about each place. Isabella Stewart Gardner’s travels heavily influ­enced her collection and the archi­tecture of the museum. Her travels to Italy inspired the columns and arches in the walls of the magnif­icent courtyard, and visits to Asia gave her ideas about plants and flowers that show in the outdoor gardens at the museum. In addition to the archi­tecture, the art itself follows themes from her experiences.

The most striking part of this museum, though, is the immensity of the art. It does not only hang on the walls but is inte­grated into every aspect of the house, the furniture and the archi­tecture. The special exhibit high­lights her rela­tionship with Bernard Berenson, a young yet inno­v­ative art critic who was influ­ential in the growth of her collection. He worked dili­gently to find the perfect pieces to add to the collection while she used her amazing sense of taste and design to put it into a inclusive museum collection.   Through reviews and research, a visit to this museum is like no other. It is awesome to see the number of priceless trea­sures so beau­ti­fully arranged within the walls of this cultural sanc­tuary. The special exhibit adds to the expe­rience by providing a detailed history of the museum and all its charm. Isabella Stewart Gardner’s dream of creating a unique cultural expe­rience has certainly been realized, and will hope­fully stay vibrant for centuries and centuries to come. Truly an invaluable spec­tacle of Boston Art in my opinion. The YouTube video below gives some insight of Luisa Rabbia, Enjoy!