This museum is like two museums. First, the art on every inch of the walls, the statues and furniture in the middle, as if you and I had decorated our lounge with all the jumble we liked. Impossible to describe, art from just every period, every continent, 7500 of them. The museum was robbed in 1990, and thirteen works of art were stolen. Today, empty frames remain hanging on the walls where the paintings were taken. Second, the house, specially built to be a beautiful case for the artwork, with a central courtyard, a green space full of flowers, statues and a fountain. The house itself is built around this patio in a somewhat Italian Venice style. Incredible. All this is the work of Isabella Stewart Gardner and her husband, resulting from her creativity and implication. A museum I will have to go back to.
“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 the leader of the smart set, but she often leads where none dare follow… She imitates nobody; everything she does is novel and original. A Boston reporter.”