There are a number of things I miss about Boston. Aside from close friends, I miss the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The museum is a real Boston gem and is sometimes overshadowed by the neighboring Museum of Fine Arts and others.During my last year in Boston, I was an information desk volunteer at the Gardner. I worked at the museum several times a month, helping visitors acclimate to the museum. My favorite part was interacting with them in the galleries because the questions almost always had to do with the history of the museum…which is what makes this institution so remarkable.
In a nutshell, the museum was founded in 1903 by a prominent Bostonian named Isabella Stewart Gardner. The picture to the left is a well-known portrait, painted by Anders Zorn and rests in the museum. She built a Venetian Palace in the Fenway area of Boston to house her vast collection of art. Upon her death in 1924, “Fenway Court” became the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Mrs. Jack, as she was known, stipulated that nothing could change in the museum. As such, the art in the galleries is placed in the same exact manner that she intended. Any violation of this agreement and the contents of the museum would be sold at auction with the proceeds going to Harvard University. Talk about a tough cookie.
Today is Mrs. Jack’s birthday – she would be 170 years young! It’s easy to remember as the museum’s courtyard always features hanging nasturtiums (her favorite flower) in April. I wish I could be there to pay homage to this remarkable woman but also to wander through the galleries and view one of Rembrandt’s self portraits, Titian’s famous Europa, and John Singer Sargent’s El Jaleo.
If you appreciate history and a good mystery, you may want to educate yourself about the famous “Gardner Heist” that took place 20 years ago. Thirteen works were stolen in the middle of the night, including several Rembrandts and a Vermeer, and have yet to be recovered. An excellent book was published last year called The Gardner Heist, written by a longtime investigator of the crime. Even if you aren’t an art aficionado, you will enjoy this book but will be dismayed that such priceless works are still missing. To learn more about Mrs. Jack herself, check out the aptly named Mrs. Jack, a wonderful biography on an amazing woman. To those who are in Boston, or are planning a visit, I wholeheartedly recommend a visit.
This all reminds me that I need to pay another visit to the Taft Museum here in Cincinnati. Like the Gardner, the Taft is a collection housed in a private residence and its existence is owed to former citizens who believed in the sharing of art and history with the public.
Happy Birthday, Mrs. Jack. Thank you for leaving such a wonderful legacy.
Hi Abby! It's Patricia, one of your former fellow Gardner volunteers. Your blog entry came up in my email alert about the Gardner Museum. A very nice posting on our favorite lady! And it's nice to see you are doing well in Cinncinnati. Know that you are missed in Boston! In a nutshell, I am currently unemployed (not altogether a bad thing) and am planning to start a blog of some sort. I will probably do some writing about museum visits. I would like to follow your blog and eventually link to it, if that's okay with you. Hope to hear from you soon....Patricia Lane
ReplyDeleteHi Patricia! Thanks for the note, I do remember you. Working at the Gardner was wonderful and it was definitely sad to leave. I look forward to hearing about your own blog - I think you could offer some great commentary. I'll be sure to post about some of Cincinnati's museums as well, so definitely link up with me.
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