Isabella Stewart Gardner

Isabella Stewart Gardner (1888), portrait by John Singer Sargent

Isabella Stewart Gardner , called Mrs. Jack Gardner (born April 14, 1840 in New York City , New York , † July 14, 1924 in Boston , Massachusetts ) was an influential American art collector, philanthropist and patron . She is the founder of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. Gardner was a sponsor of the epoch-making Armory Show in 1913.

The daughter of David and Adelia (Smith) Stewart married the wealthy Boston shipowner and financial investor John Lowell Gardner (1837–1898), called Jack (and she "Mrs. Jack") at the age of 20 .

Jack and Isabella had a son, John Lowell III, who died in March 1865, aged less than two. After that, the couple devoted themselves primarily to travel and art, but from 1875 also to the three orphaned teenage sons of Jack's brother Joseph.

Isabella was considered an extremely dynamic, eccentric personality who preoccupied the gossip columns of the Boston newspapers. Her friends included John Singer Sargent , James McNeill Whistler , Anders Zorn , Henry James , Okakura Kakuzō and Francis Marion Crawford .

literature

Louise Hall Tharp: Mrs. Jack. A Biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner. Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum, Boston MA 2003, ISBN 0-914660-19-5 .
Patricia Vigderman: The Memory Palace of Isabella Stewart Gardner. Sarabande Books, Louisville KY 2007, ISBN 978-1-932511-43-7 .

Web links

Commons : Isabella Stewart Gardner - Collection of images, videos and audio files

personal data
SURNAME	Gardner, Isabella Stewart
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Gardner, Mrs. Jack
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American art collector, philanthropist, and patron
DATE OF BIRTH	April 14, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH	New York City
DATE OF DEATH	July 14, 1924
Place of death	Boston , Massachusetts