A visit to the the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was on our itinerary while visiting our grandson in Boston last April. I read about the museum over the years and watched the Netflix program, “This Is a Robbery”, about the unsolved robbery of 13 priceless masterpieces in 1990. I have visited many great museums over the years such as the State Hermitage Museum Saint Petersburg, Russia, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, London’s wonderful Victoria and Albert Museum, and many iconic museums in Paris, but the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum stands apart as a singularly unique and personal art collection and home…. of one fascinating woman,…Isabella Stewart Gardner.

In 1875 a reporter wrote, “Mrs. Jack Gardner is one of the seven wonders of Boston. There is nobody like her in any city in this country. She is a millionaire Bohemienne. She is eccentric, and she has the courage of eccentricity. She is the leader of the smart set, but she often leads where none dare follow….imitates nobody; everything she does is novel and original.”

The Gardner’s loved Italy, and Isabella had a passion for Venice, where she and her husband would often stay at the Palazzo Barbaro on the Grand Canal. In the summer of 1897, Isabella and Jack traveled through Venice, Florence, and Rome to gather architectural fragments for their eventual gallery. They purchased columns, windows, and doorways to adorn every floor, as well as reliefs, balustrades, capitals, and statuary from the Roman, Byzantine, Gothic, and Renaissance periods. In 1898 Isabella’s husband died suddenly of a stroke. A year later, with a single-mindedness of purpose, Isabella immersed herself to build her own Venetian inspired palazzo for her new home and expanded art collection.

Isabella curated her art collection in a very personal manner and it is unlike any museum I have visited. Her will included one of the strictest mandates for an art collection in history, stipulating the museum and her collection should never be permanently altered. What you will see is the way she wanted her artworks and furniture to be displayed. It is her personal style. The lighting is often dim (to preserve the paintings) and there are no identifying labels. She wanted the viewer to appreciate the art itself, and to have an immersive emotional experience.

With 7500 paintings, sculptures, furniture, textiles, silver, ceramics, 1500 rare books, 7000 archival objects from ancient Rome, Medieval Europe, Renaissance Italy, Asia, the Islamic World, 19th century France and America, there is a lot to take in.

Join me for a tour. When you enter the museum you can barely take your eye off the simply beautiful glass covered inner “courtyard” with colorful flowers and tropical trees.

You then enter the “Spanish Cloister” with the huge 1882 John Singer Sargent painting of the Spanish dancer, “El Jaleo”, casting an immediate spell.

The “Chinese Loggia” is up the stairs. On the left is a remarkable temple stele, a Buddhist votive sculpture from China, Eastern Wei dynasty, A.D. 543.

Marla and Paxton read the inscription in front of the stairs (now blocked) for the “Chinese Room”, Isabella’s private retreat. She loved Asian art and culture after touring Japan in 1883 and Vietnam, Cambodia, and Java in 1884. Marla’s favorite piece, a 12th century Chinese Kuan Yin carving, is on the wooden pedestal above the stairway.

The adventure continues on the ground floor.

The “Macknight Room” is filled with paintings by Isabella’s personal friends.

Purchased a few years before her death, Paul Manship’s “Diana” (1921) shows her burgeoning interest in Art Deco. Manship is most famous for his iconic “Prometheus” sculpture in Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.

The “Raphael Room” is stunning.

The “Tapestry Room” was also used for musical concerts. 15th and 16th Flemish tapestries line the walls.

Marla studies an interesting gilded wood carving.

These 18th century chairs drew our attention. The slats on this set of chairs are delightfully painted with various figures in exotic ancient Middle Eastern, African, or Asian garb.

The “Green Room” is infamous for the 1990 art heist. A total of 13 priceless works of art were stolen. The museum is offering a $10,000,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the stolen works.

Paxton and I ponder what the room looked like before the theft. The empty frames remain on the wall due to her stipulation that nothing is changed.

Rembrandt’s self-portrait remains on the right, left behind by the thieves because it is painted on an oak panel.

The “Veronese Room” on the third floor is magnificent with the amazing 16th century painting, “The Coronation of Hebe” by Paolo Veronese, on the ceiling.

One cabinet contains numerous fascinating silver pieces.

The walls in the “Veronese Room” are absolutely stunning. Leather wall panels from the 17th – 18th centuries are tooled and painted with silver gilding.

Marveling in the “Little Salon.”

I loved looking at all the precious little treasures she collected in this cabinet.

The “Titian Room” is being renovated. I can’t wait to return to see the famous “Europa.”

The “Long Gallery and Chapel” is breathtaking.

“Lamentation over Christ” by Giovanni della Robbia from 1515.

I am particularly drawn to the “Madonna of the Eucharist” by Sandro Botticelli in 1470.

At the end of the gallery is the beautiful “Soisson Window” from 1205.

Marla and Paxton stop to admire a piece on the way into the “Gothic Room” which was off limits to visitors during Isabella Gardner’s lifetime.

John Singer Sargent’s 1888 portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner is hung in the once private, “Gothic Room” as her husband asked her not to display it while he was alive.

The 16th century “Altar of the Holy Kinship” from Germany, is in the “Gothic Room.

A courtyard view transports you back in time.

I’ll end our tour at the fabulous “Farnese Sarcophagus” with revelers gathering grapes, from Rome about 225 AD. Discovered in Tivoli in 1535, it once belonged to a collection of an early Pope.

I can’t wait to return to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum! What an enigmatic and fascinating woman and what a stunning museum!

Photos: Dick Gentry. (Photos 2,3,5, from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum) Not to be used without permission.