That Mrs. Gardner!

Travel tip if you are headed to BOSTON: Be sure to visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Here's why: Mrs. Gardner was an absolutely AWESOME art collector.

She continued to learn about art her whole adult life.
She collected what she loved & loved what she collected.
She acquired a huge variety of both old and contemporary works, in all mediums.
She collected "decorative" work (furniture, textiles, housewares) to mix with the "fine" art.
She was pals with many contemporary artists (who in fact turned out to be damn good); she bought their art even though she saw herself as a classicist.
She hung & placed every work precisely as she wanted it to be seen (I just love that CONTROLLING hand).
She designed the whole museum to look like a HOUSE, to give the experience of viewing a personal collection in a home.
After nearly 100 years Mrs. Gardner still permeates every corner of every room.

She did all this not to demonstrate her prowess as a discerning collector; nor as a monument to herself.

She collected art to SHARE what she LOVED with EVERYBODY.

That's what makes a truly great collector.
Courtyard of the Gardner Museum
What a juxtaposition! The viewer can sit to contemplate an intimate Christ carrying the cross on the the left... or look up at Titian's monumental rape of Europa for a change of pace... Mrs. Gardner REALLY liked her Titian, even hung the fabric from her own ball gown below it. She was a lady who knew how to have a good time.


Children above study John Singer Sargent's "El Jaleo."  Hard not to get up & dance with this lady. Mrs. Gardner was particular friends with Sargent.
On the far left, one of my favorites, by Anders Zorn, "Omnibus."
Click here to learn more about the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

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