Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. 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, sculpture, tapestries, and decorative arts. It is originally the home of Isabella Stewart Gardner, whose will called for her art collection 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 have not been recovered.
The home which houses today's museum was built in 1903 by Isabella Stewart Gardner, an American art collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. It is housed in a building designed to emulate a 15th-century Venetian palace, drawing particular inspiration from the Venetian Palazzo Barbaro.
Gardner began collecting seriously after she received a large inheritance from her father in 1891. Her purchase of Vermeer's The Concert 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. After her husband John L. Gardner's
Its collection includes paintings, sculpture, tapestries, and decorative arts. It is originally the home of Isabella Stewart Gardner, whose will called for her art collection 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 have not been recovered.
The home which houses today's museum was built in 1903 by Isabella Stewart Gardner, an American art collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. It is housed in a building designed to emulate a 15th-century Venetian palace, drawing particular inspiration from the Venetian Palazzo Barbaro.
Gardner began collecting seriously after she received a large inheritance from her father in 1891. Her purchase of Vermeer's The Concert 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. After her husband John L. Gardner's
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