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Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

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Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Map
Established1903
LocationBoston, Massachusetts
TypeArt museum
Public transit access
  Green Line (E Branch)
Museum of Fine Arts Disabled access
Websitewww.gardnermuseum.org
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is located in Massachusetts
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
LocationBoston, Massachusetts
Built1896-1903
ArchitectWillard T. Sears[1]
NRHP reference No.83000603[1]
Added to NRHPJanuary 27, 1983

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum or Fenway Court, as the museum was known during Isabella Stewart Gardner's lifetime, is a museum in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located within walking distance of the Museum of Fine Arts and near the Back Bay Fens. The museum houses an art collection of world importance, including significant examples of European, Asian, and American art, from paintings and sculpture to tapestries and decorative arts. It is the only private art collection in which the building, collection, and installations are the creation of one individual.

Today, the museum hosts exhibitions of historic and contemporary art, as well as concerts, lectures, family and community programs, and changing courtyard displays.

In honor of its founder, the museum offers free admission and occasional special events for anyone named Isabella.[2] In addition, visitors receive free admission to the museum on their birthday.[3]

History

The museum was established in 1903 by Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924), an American art collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. It is housed in a building designed to emulate a 15th-century Venetian palace, drawing particular inspiration from the Venetian Palazzo Barbaro.

Gardner began collecting seriously after she received a large inheritance from her father in 1891. Her purchase of Vermeer's The Concert at auction in Paris in 1892 was her first major acquisition. In 1894, Bernard Berenson offered his services in helping her acquire a Botticelli. Berenson helped acquire nearly 70 works of art for her collection.

The Rape of Europa (1562) by Titian is one of the most famous works in the museum.

After her husband John L. Gardner’s death in 1898, Isabella Gardner realized their shared dream of building a museum for their treasures. She purchased land for the museum in the marshy Fenway area of Boston, and hired architect Willard T. Sears to build a museum modeled on the Renaissance palaces of Venice. Gardner was deeply involved in every aspect of the design, though, leading Sears to quip that he was merely the structural engineer making Gardner's design possible. After the construction of the building was complete, Gardner spent a full year carefully installing her collection in a way that evokes intimate responses to the art, mixing paintings, furniture, textiles and objects from different cultures and periods among well-known European paintings and sculpture.

The museum opened on January 1, 1903 with a grand celebration featuring a performance by members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a menu that included champagne and doughnuts.

During Gardner's lifetime, she welcomed artists, performers, and scholars to Fenway Court to draw inspiration from the rich collection and dazzling Venetian setting, including John Singer Sargent, Charles Martin Loeffler, and Ruth St. Denis, among others. Today, the museum’s vibrant contemporary Artist-in-Residence program, courtyard garden displays, concerts, and innovative education programs continue Isabella Gardner’s legacy.

When Isabella Stewart Gardner died in 1924, her will created an endowment of $1 million and outlined stipulations for the support of the museum, including the charge that her collection be permanently exhibited “for the education and enjoyment of the public forever” according to her aesthetic vision and intent. Gardner stipulated that if her wishes for the museum were not honored, the property and collection were to be sold and the money given to Harvard University.

The museum's current director is Anne Hawley.

Design

Hercules by Piero della Francesca, after 1465

Built to evoke a 15th-century Venetian palace, the museum itself provides an atmospheric setting for Isabella Stewart Gardner's inventive creation. Gardner hired Willard T. Sears to design the building near the marshy Back Bay Fens to house her growing art collection.[4] Inside the museum, three floors of galleries surround a garden courtyard blooming with life in all seasons.

It is a common misconception that the building was brought to America from Venice and reconstructed.[5] It was built from the ground up in Boston out of new materials, incorporating numerous architectural fragments from European Gothic and Renaissance structures.

Antique elements are worked into the design of the turn-of-the-century building. Special tiles were custom designed for the floors, modern concrete was used for some of the structural elements, and antique capitals sit atop modern columns. The interior garden courtyard is covered by a glass roof, with steel support structure original to the building.

The Gardner Museum is much admired for the intimate atmosphere in which its works of art are displayed and for its flower-filled courtyard. Most of the art pieces are unlabeled, and the generally dim lighting is more akin to a private house than a modern art museum.

Collection

Isabella Stewart Gardner collected and carefully displayed a collection of more than 2,500 objects—paintings, sculpture, furniture, textiles, architectural elements, drawings, silver, ceramics, illuminated manuscripts, rare books, photographs and letters—from ancient Rome, Medieval Europe, Renaissance Italy, Asia, the Islamic world, and 19th-century France and America. Among the artists represented in the galleries are Titian, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, Manet, Degas, Whistler and Sargent. The first Matisse to enter an American collection is housed in the Yellow Room.

Well-known artworks in the museum’s collection include Titian’s The Rape of Europa, John Singer Sargent’s El Jaleo and Portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Fra Angelico’s Death and Assumption of the Virgin, Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait, Aged 23, Cellini’s Bindo Altoviti, and Piero della Francesca’s Hercules.

The archives hold more than 7,000 letters from 1,000 correspondents, including Henry Adams, T.S. Eliot, Sarah Bernhardt and Oliver Wendell Holmes, in addition to original Dante manuscripts.

Extension and preservation project

Sandro Botticelli, The Story of Lucretia, 1496-1504 - not stolen

In 2002, after a two-year master planning process, the museum’s board of trustees determined that a new wing was necessary to preserve the historic building and to provide improved spaces for programs that continue Isabella Gardner’s legacy. In 2004, Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano and the Renzo Piano Building Workshop (Genoa, Italy) were selected to design the new wing. The design for the new wing is conceived as a respectful complement to the historic Museum building in scale, form, and materials.

In March 2009, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts approved the museum’s plans, confirming that the project is consistent with the primary purpose of Isabella Stewart Gardner’s will and is in the public interest. The project also received approval from all relevant city and state preservation and development review agencies.

The new wing will include new spaces for visitor services, concerts, special exhibitions, and education and landscape programs, furthering Isabella Gardner’s legacy in art, music, and horticulture while reducing 21st-century strain on the collection and galleries. The planned completion date is 2012,[6] and the project will cost $118 million.[7]

Art theft of 1990

In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990 – as the city was preoccupied with Saint Patrick's Day celebrations – a pair of thieves disguised themselves as Boston police officers, gained entry to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and stole thirteen works of art.

The stolen artworks include:[8]

  • The Concert by Vermeer (one of only 34 known works by Vermeer in the world)
  • A Lady and Gentleman in Black by Rembrandt
  • The Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt (the artist’s only known seascape)
  • Self-Portrait by Rembrandt (postage-stamp-sized)
  • Landscape with Obelisk by Govaert Flinck (formerly attributed to Rembrandt)
  • Chez Tortoni by Manet
  • Five drawings by Degas:
    • La Sortie de Pesage
    • Cortege aux Environs de Florence
    • Program for an artistic soiree 1 & 2
    • Three Mounted Jockeys
  • An ancient Chinese Ku from the Shang Dynasty
  • A finial in the shape of an eagle from a Napoleonic flag

All together, the stolen pieces are estimated to be a loss of $500 million, making the robbery the largest private property theft ever.[9] Several empty frames hang in the Dutch Room gallery, both in homage to the missing works and as placeholders for when they are returned. The stolen artworks have not yet been returned to the museum and the strange selection of works puzzles the experts, specially since more valuable artworks were available.[10] Some of the paintings were cut from their frames and probably rolled up.[10]

The museum offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the recovery of the stolen artwork, which remains open. The FBI followed several leads, but none of it produced any results. The case was muddled up by the monetary reward and corruption in the Boston FBI office, which would be uncovered in the late 1990s (see John Connolly).[10] The investigation remains an open, active case and leads are investigated by the museum and the FBI.

Speculation

The theft is the subject of a 2005 documentary called Stolen, which in a slightly different version had earlier appeared on Court TV.[11] It was also the subject of a 2008 episode of American Greed.

The theft was referenced in The Simpsons episode "American History X-cellent," in which one of the stolen works, The Concert by Vermeer, is found in the collection of Mr. Burns. Similarly, in the The Venture Bros. episode "Victor. Echo. November.," a supervillain attempts to sell The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, which he apparently possesses, to a collector for ten million dollars. [citation needed]

Current programs

The Gardner Museum regularly produces scholarly exhibitions—along with lectures, family programs, and symposia—that provide insights into the historic collection. Through the Gardner’s Artist-in-Residence program, artists in many disciplines are invited to live at and draw inspiration from the museum. The museum often hosts exhibitions of contemporary art, performances, and programs by Artists-in-Residence.

The Gardner’s concert series welcomes musicians and emerging artists to perform classical masterpieces, new music, and jazz on Sunday afternoons and select Thursday evenings. The musical program is also available through concert videos, audio recordings, and a free classical music podcast.

Reflecting Isabella Gardner’s passion for horticulture and garden design, the Gardner’s interior courtyard is an astonishing work of art, combining ever-changing horticultural displays with sculpture and architectural elements. The unique interplay between the courtyard and the museum galleries offers visitors a fresh view of the courtyard from almost every room, inviting connections between art and landscape. Programs like the Landscape Visions lecture series and special Ask the Gardener hours further engage visitors with the art of landscape.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "National Register of Historical Places - Massachusetts (MA), Suffolk County". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-03-11.
  2. ^ "Isabellas Free...Forever!". Gardnermuseum.org. 1903-01-01. Retrieved 2011-10-16.
  3. ^ "Offers and Discounts". Gardner Museum. Retrieved 2012-09-17.
  4. ^ "ISGM Exhibitions: The Making of the Museum - Construction". Gardnermuseum.org. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  5. ^ "Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum - Review". Igougo.com. Retrieved 2012-06-20.
  6. ^ Edgers, Geoff (2004-11-29). "Gardner museum to grow". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2010-01-21.
  7. ^ Edgers, Geoff (2010-01-20). "Gardner's $118m expansion plan set". Boston.com. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  8. ^ "FBI: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Theft". Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  9. ^ Stealing Rembrandts book by art security expert Anthony Amore | Harvard Magazine Mar-Apr 2012
  10. ^ a b c McShane, Thomas (2006). "18. No Boston Tea Party at Isabella's". Stolen Masterpiece Tracker. Barricade Books. ISBN 978-1-56980-314-1. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ Rebecca Dreyfus (2006-04-13). "Stolen: Is it still a masterpiece if no one can find it?" (PDF). Stolen pressbook. International Film Circuit. Retrieved June 24, 2010.
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