Just down the street from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is a little gem called the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. In addition to the fine works of John Singer Sargent (that we looked at on Monday), there are paintings, sculptures, drawings, furniture, and tapestries from around the world and spanning several centuries. The collector of these fine things was Isabella Stewart Gardner, some on her trips with her husband Jack and some through art dealers. She needed a place to display these works and so built her house and museum. She designed it and oversaw every step of its construction. She knew where each piece would go and stipulated in her will that nothing could be sold or removed from its original place. She also left an endowment that would ensure that the museum become a place “for the education and enjoyment of the public forever.”
As much as what is there, the museum is known for what isn’t. On March 18, 1990, the museum was broken into and artworks worth up to $500 million were stolen, including a Vermeer (The Concert), three Rembrandts, and a Degas. Several other pieces were also taken. They have never been found and no one has ever been convicted. The empty frames still hang in the gallery. (A terrific book about the theft is The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World’s Largest Unsolved Art Theft by Ulrich Boser.)
The museum itself is worth seeing. The layout and how Mrs. Gardner displayed her collection are as fascinating as is what is in the collection. Take a look at the museum layout. (The new wing was not completed until 5 years after my visit.)
Here are a few selections from different periods of artwork that is in the museum, as well as one of the Rembrandts that was stolen.
Fra Angelico: The Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin, 1424 - 1434
Albrecht Durer: A Man in a Fur Coat, 1521
Rembrandt: Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, 1633
James McNeill Whistler: Street at Saverne, 1858
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