A question I always ask others that love to travel is, "What is your favorite place and why?" Always, there is a poetic response and usually an impassioned story. Such is the case with myself and Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The museum, housed in the 15th century palazzo of the Victorian heiress, is nothing short of breathtaking inside its natural lit galleries and verdant courtyard. It's a transcendent experience visiting this American palace of art, the opposite of most museums which Gardner herself referred to as "mausoleums." A mausoleum this is not. The museum's collection was created by one of 19th century's most frequent flyers, Mrs. Jack, as she was known, the widow of the pepper heir John Lowell "Jack" Gardner. An avid traveler, the Gardners toured the world for inspiration in a time when traveling was not easy, nor convenient, and while she began first buying editions of Dante, she eventually found herself a major collector of Renaissance and Impressionist works. It was upon her husband's death that the vision for this residential museum was shaped and with the architect Willard T. Sears, the museum was completed in 1901. Gardner then spent over a year personally installing it. Every nook feels as if it was contemplated, every item placed exactly as she dreamt and the result is enchanting. It is as if the museum itself is one woman's meticulous work of art, and indeed it would be best described as celebratory. The Gardner is still known after 105 years of existence as one of the most important individually curated private collections in the world. A sampling of master artists included is a who's who: Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Botticelli, Degas, Sargent.
A prominent figure in turn of the century art circles, Gardner's journeys, as well as her own image, are exhibited in her collection of paintings, furnitures, tapestries, and objets d'art. She appears in many 19th century European art history books as the glamorous American collector and reflecting back on her acquisitions some 150 years later, it's impossible to dispute that Mrs. Jack had impeccable taste. And she was known as quite the hostess, even lending John Sargent a room for a studio! For the almost two decades that Gardner remained alive while the museum opened, it changed as she continued to acquire, but has remained untouched since 1924 when she passed, but for an unsolved robbery in 1990 where a number of masterpieces were stolen. It is simply a divine haven in Boston, perfect anytime of year. If you asked me to live there, I'd move in with no hesitation. Just as long as the art was still on the walls! A short distance from the Sheraton Boston Hotel, perhaps it will become one of your favorite places too next trip to Beantown.
