Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

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The museum (extension not visible)
In the courtyard
John Singer Sargent: Isabella Stewart Gardner , 1888

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston , Massachusetts is a private American museum of mostly European art that opened in 1903.

history

The American art collector and patron Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) was in the period 1896-1903, named after its museum from scratch in the historic style of a Venetian palazzo influenced neo-Renaissance building and carried on their travels, supported by their Advisor to Bernard Berenson , the most renowned expert on the Italian Renaissance at the time, and a considerable collection through the international art trade. The museum now has more than 2,500 exhibits of European, Asian, and American art.

Museum building

The four-winged complex, which is simple from the outside, encloses a wide glass-covered courtyard, which is designed in the Venetian style and decorated with sculptures. In the center is a Roman mosaic from the 2nd century that depicts the head of Medusa .

ground floor

On the ground floor behind the cloister on the east side there are two elongated halls:

  • The “Spanish Cloister” shows a large painting by his friend John Singer Sargent from 1882 with the title “El Jaleo” (Flamenco Dance), his first commission from a salon. The tiles on the walls are from a 17th century Mexican church.
  • The “Chinese Loggia” shows objects from China, including a group of figures “Buddha with companions” from 543, the base of which bears the names of more than seventy donors.
  • A Matisse and Degas can be seen in the “Yellow Room”, a Manet in the “Blue Room” and another picture by Singer in the “MacKnight Room”.

First floor

  • Almost the entire east side is taken up by the "Tapestry Room". This hall with its heavy wooden ceiling is adorned with Flemish carpets from the 16th century on the walls. The large room is also used for events.
  • In the transition from the Tapestry Room to the “Dutch Room”, Japanese screens can be seen, albeit not unfolded.
  • On the south side is the Dutch Room with paintings by Dürer , Anthonis van Dyck , Holbein , Rubens and Francisco de Zurbarán .
  • On the north side is the "Early Italian Room" with Masaccio , Andrea Mantegna , Fra Angelico , Simone Martini and others, and next to it the "Raphael Room", dedicated to Raffael , Carlo Crivelli and other contemporary Italians.
  • Ms. Gardener's painting by Swedish artist Anders Zorn can be seen in the “Short Gallery” , and François Boucher in the “Little Salon” next to it .

Second floor

The second floor has a smaller footprint than the others. Folded Japanese screens can be seen again in the passage.

Pictures (selection)

  • Rubens

  • Rembrandt

  • Martini

  • Raffael

  • Crivelli

  • Giotto

  • Cellini

  • Botticelli

Art theft 1990

The art theft of March 18, 1990, which has not been resolved to this day and which is listed by the FBI on the list of the top ten art crimes, caused an international stir . Two men disguised as police officers forced their way into the building and stole 13 works of art, including the concert of Jan Vermeer , Édouard Manet's Chez Tortoni and two paintings and an etching Rembrandt van Rijn . The paintings have not yet been found. As an expression of the donor's will, according to which no works of art may be removed from the museum or changed in the hanging, the empty frames are still hanging in place.

Stolen goods (selection)

Extension

Due to the steadily growing number of visitors over the decades, the museum has been expanded to include a new grand piano based on a design by Renzo Piano . The extension opened in February 2012.

Exhibitions

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b A Japanese artist group around Yokoyama Taikan had been received by Mrs. Gardner in 1903 and had impressed her.
  2. ↑ Isabella Stewart Gardner art heist on the FBI website (accessed January 22, 2010)
  3. ↑ News about the Gardner case, FAZ, April 17, 2015
  4. ↑ Nicolai Ouroussoff: "An Architect Pays Respects to a Dowager" , in: NY Times , January 20, 2010 (English)
  5. ^ In Noah's Ark of Boston in FAZ of November 17, 2017, page 12.

literature

  • Museum leaflet (four pages with building plan)
  • Ulrich Boser: The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft , New York 2009

Web links

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

Coordinates: 42 ° 20 '19.1 "  N , 71 ° 5' 56.3"  W.