10 Things I Wish I’d Known About Isabella Stewart Gardner BEFORE I Visited Her Museum

10 Things I Wish I'd Known About Isabella Stewart Gardner BEFORE I Visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston

The New York-born, French-educated, world traveler behind Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was quite a personality. Here are ten things I wish I’d known about the fiery redhead before visiting her museum.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum feels like an east coast version of the Winchester Mystery House that’s returned home to Boston after finishing school in Europe. And the wealthy founder of the museum was just as unique and quirky as the three-story, palatial museum that bears her name. Here are 10 things I wish I’d known about the woman behind the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum before I visited.

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1 – She Happily Marched to the Tune of Her Own Drum

The red-headed, fair-skinned, and freckled first born daughter of a David and Adelia Stewart was called Belle as a young girl. She was born in New York and raised in an upscale neighborhood. Isabella attended small private schools with other girls from affluent families and then moved abroad to finishing school in Paris at the age of 16.

After completing finishing school, Isabella traveled extensively throughout Europe. She easily learned both French and Italian, and embraced the fashion, culture, history, and art of the Old World. When she settled down in Boston with her husband, Isabella didn’t necessarily fit in. While dressing like a Parisian and acting like a New Yorker earned her the admiration of younger, more progressive Bostonians, it also brought admonishment from Boston’s high society.

Fun Fact:  Isabella may have been the first person to wear head boppers. She had a large pair of diamonds mounted on springs and wore them like antennae in her hair.

 

2 – The Friendships She Founded in Paris Led Her to Her Husband

While some affluent young women were shipped overseas to finishing school solo, Isabella’s parents went with her to Paris. They hung out with other Americans living in Paris, including the Gardner family who had two daughters attending Isabella’s school. After returning to the US, Isabella traveled to Boston to visit her friend, Julia Gardner. It was there that she was introduced to Julia’s big brother, and her future husband, John Lowell Gardner.

Fun Fact:  Upon marrying John Gardner, Isabella was known as “Mrs. Jack.”

Related Article:  French Food You Have to Try Before Leaving France

 

The gorgeous courtyard in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
The gorgeous courtyard in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

 

3 – Travel Helped Her Mend a Broken Heart…

One significant reason that Isabella’s parents went with her to finishing school in Paris was to deal with their younger daughter’s death at age 11. Years later, Isabella’s toddler son died of pneumonia. And later that year, Gardner suffered a miscarriage that left her unable to bear children. In an attempt to mend her broken heart, Isabella and John spent 18 months traveling throughout Europe.

Related Article:  Everything You Need to Know Before Visiting Europe for the First Time

 

4 – …and Start the Art Collection That Would Become the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

While on her extended stay in Europe, Isabella purchased her first piece of art for $650 in 1873. Painted by Charles Emile Jacques, Sheep in the Shelter of the Oaks is a landscape of sheep under a tree.

Pro Tip:  See this piece on display in the Blue Room of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

When Isabella’s father died in 1891, she received $1.75 million (about $46 million in today’s dollars) from his estate. The Gardners chose to invest the bulk of her inheritance by building their art collection, and Isabella quickly gained recognition as a serious art collector based upon her purchases.   

 

5 – She Was Given a Second, Alternative Shot at Motherhood

Although she was denied motherhood in her own right, another family tragedy gave Isabella a different opportunity. While the Gardners were on an extended trip in the Middle East, Isabella and John returned home when they received word that John’s widowed brother had passed away. Taking in their three, orphaned nephews, Aunt Isabella threw herself into helping the boys prepare for Harvard.

 

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum lets you get this close to a Degas sketch.
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum lets you get this close to a Degas sketch.

6 – Which Also Helped Her Turn Over a New Leaf

While helping ensure her nephews were set up for success at Harvard, Isabella quickly realized her own formal education was lacking in comparison. To quench her sudden, insatiable desire to learn, Isabella started attending lectures at Harvard. She soon became close friends with Harvard’s first professor of art history, Charles Eliot Norton.

Fun Fact:  Professor Norton encouraged Isabella to add rare books to her growing collection. One of her first purchases was the complete works of Dante Aligheri which is currently on display in the Long Gallery at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

 

7 – And Build An Extensive Network of Artsy Friends

While Boston’s high society ostracized Isabella for her low-cut French dresses, she befriended artists from around the world. Novelist Henry James was so inspired by Isabella that he fashioned his heroine in The Wings of the Dove after her. And artist John Singer Sargent painted a portrait of Isabella that caused quite a stir.

Pro Tip:  Explore more of Boston’s art via this interactive scavenger hunt.

Wearing her signature pearls and a black dress deemed “low cut” for the time, local gossips were quite unkind about Sargent’s portrait of Isabella due to her plunging neckline. John Gardner was so angered by the comments that he had the portrait put away and it wasn’t exhibited again in his lifetime. Look for this painting on display in the Gothic Room at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. (Or see it here at the top of this article.)

Pro Tip:  Based on your Boston itinerary, you may be able to save money on the city’s top attractions (and skip the line) with the Boston CityPASS.

 

8 – She Found Another Way to Mend a Broken Heart

When Isabella lost her beloved husband in December 1898, she inherited an estate valued at $3.6 million (about $104 million in today’s dollars.) Instead of a long trip to Europe, Isabella acquired land at the intersection of Fenway and Worthington and began orchestrating the design and construction of a Venetian-style palace that would ultimately become the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. To keep herself busy, she oversaw every detail of its construction, including instructing the Italian artisans who plastered the ceilings and cornices in her fluent Italian. Upon its completion, Isabella lived on the fourth floor and personally arranged the art galleries on the other three floors.

 

9 – Isabella Wanted People to See Art from Their Own Point of View

Isabella had a deep appreciation for art of all kinds, from paintings to photographs, from sculptures to sketches. She wanted visitors to contemplate each work of art from their own perspective, so many of the pieces on display are not accompanied with information about the artist, medium, or date. To get these details, guests must hunt them down. First, they have to match a wall of art to its silhouette on a laminated card, one per cardinal direction. After a match has been made — connecting the north wall of art to the north wall information card — only then can visitors separate a Rembrandt from a Rimini with certainty.

Related Article:  5 Tips to Help Kids of All Ages Appreciate Art Museums

 

Empty frames remain at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Because her will forbade changing anything in the museum, empty frames remain on the walls after an art theft years ago.

 

10 – She Dictated Every Detail in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Even After Her Death

In July 1924, Isabella suffered a heart attack and died. In her will she stated that her home should serve as a public museum forever, with one important additional stipulation. No changes may be made. That means no art can be sold, no art can be added, and nothing can be moved. The draperies, furniture, and every piece of art remain in exactly the same spot where they were on the fateful day that Isabella perished.

On the plus side, visitors to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum are treated to the viewing experience personally established by the fiery redhead. On the downside after the bizarre theft of $500 million from the museum in 1990, empty frames haunt some walls of the museum.

 

To Visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Location:  25 Evans Way in Boston, Massachusetts

Hours:  11:00 am to 5:00 pm daily, except Tuesday

Cost:  $15 for adults with discounts offered for seniors and students

Fun Fact:  If your name is Isabella, show your ID for free admission to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Not so lucky in the name department? Then show your shared love for her beloved baseball team by wearing Boston Red Sox attire and receive a discount on your admission.

For the latest information, including special events, visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum website.

Pro Tip:  Before you set out for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, grab a bite at the first recommendation on this list of the best breakfast locations in Boston.

 

Have You Visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston?

What did you think when you visited? Did you know any of these details about Isabella Stewart Gardner? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

 

Isabella Stewart Gardner is the namesake of this art museum in Boston Massachusetts. boston massachusetts things to do in | art museum #boston #MA #massachusetts #US #USA #USTravel    Isabella Stewart Gardner is the namesake of this art museum in Boston Massachusetts. boston massachusetts things to do in | art museum #boston #MA #massachusetts #US #USA #USTravel

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8 thoughts on “10 Things I Wish I’d Known About Isabella Stewart Gardner BEFORE I Visited Her Museum”

  1. Ivette Zaida Olmo- Reyes

    I visit the museum on Sunday July 17 2022 and I can’t stop thinking of such beautiful and educated place! I felt like I was living in the past.
    The paintings, the books (I love to read!) the furniture, every piece of art. Oh my God I couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing!
    Since then I have been looking for information and I really hope I can visit it again.
    ( Oh the missing paintings on the walls impacted me! I felt sorry and sad.

  2. I’m so impressed that her resilient spirit did not dull her love of her husband, children, or art. She was a thriving spirit unchained by the snobbery of others. Her heart had a higher calling with her beautiful museum frozen in time to gift for generations to come.
    Quite a remarkable & selfless gift to the world!

  3. The Wanderlost Campaigner

    The first person to wear head boppers. That line killed me, I can really imagine it. What a trailblazer! I’d never heard of her, now i’m VERY intrigued.

  4. I enjoyed reading this interesting backstory behind this museum. It is nice to hear about a powerful woman from history! I’ll be sure to pin this article and revisit it when we go to Boston….hopefully in the fall before it gets ‘wicked’ cold!

  5. I haven’t been to the museum before, but she sounds like a fascinating woman! I love that Isabella planned her museum before she died, clearly a woman that knows what she wants!

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