ART + ARCHITECTURE
WRITTEN BY Bek Mitchell-Kidd
Photography courtesy of the
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Unconventional
Visionary
U
Upon purchasing Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait (1629) in 1896, Isabella Stewart Gard-
ner and her husband Jack decided their ambitions as collectors required more
space than their residence permitted and began to explore the idea of a museum.
At first the couple considered expanding their current home, combining two
houses on Beacon Street. However, as Isabella’s collection and ambitions con-
tinued to grow, Jack felt it would be more sensible to buy land and build a new
building for a museum with apartments for their residence.
The Gardners loved Italy, and Isabella was passionate about Venice. In the sum-
mer of 1897, Isabella and Jack traveled through Venice, Florence and Rome to
gather architectural fragments for the museum. They purchased columns, win-
dows, doorways, balustrades and statuary from the Roman, Byzantine, Gothic
and Renaissance periods.
Jack Gardner died suddenly of a stroke in 1898. Isabella continued with their
shared plan to purchase a plot of land in the Fens area of Boston and hired architect
Willard Sears, who had remodeled the couple’s house in Brookline.
Previous page: Dutch Room featuring Self-Portrait, Age 23 by Rembrandt Van Rijn, 1629. Photo by Sean Dungan.
SPRING 2018
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