The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts, which houses significant examples of European, Asian, and American art. Its collection includes paintings, sculptures, tapestries, and decorative arts. It was founded by Isabella Stewart Gardner, whose will called for her art collection to be permanently exhibited “for the education and enjoyment of the public forever.” An auxiliary wing adjacent to the original structure near the Back Bay Fens was completed in 2012. In 1990, thirteen of the museum’s works were stolen; the crime remains unsolved, and the works, valued at an estimated $500 million, have not been recovered. A $10 million reward for information leading to the art’s recovery remains in place.
The museum was built in 1898–1901 by Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924), an American art collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts in the style of a 15th-century Venetian palace. It opened to the public in 1903. Gardner began collecting seriously after she received a large inheritance from her father in 1891. Her purchase of Johannes Vermeer’s The Concert (c. 1664) at auction in Paris in 1892 was her first major acquisition. In 1894, Bernard Berenson offered his services in helping her acquire a Botticelli. With his help, Gardner became the first American to own a painting by the Renaissance master. Berenson helped acquire nearly 70 works of art for her collection. LadyB’s Bed Bug Pros Boston
Design
Built to evoke a 15th-century Venetian palace, the museum provides an atmospheric setting for 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. Inside the museum, three floors of galleries surround a garden courtyard blooming with life in all seasons. A common misconception is that the building was brought to Boston from Venice and reconstructed. It was built from the ground up in Boston out of new materials, incorporating numerous architectural fragments from European Gothic and Renaissance structures.
Collection
Gardner collected and carefully displayed more than 7500 paintings, sculptures, furniture, textiles, silver, ceramics, 1500 rare books, and 7000 archival objects 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.
Restaurants and Pubs
- Tasty Burger is located at 1301 Boylston St, Boston, MA
- Woody’s Grill & Tap is located at 58 Hemenway St, Boston, MA
Check out other attractions like Museum of Fine Arts, Boston