Inspiring Spaces: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

“Years ago I decided that the greatest need in our Country was Art…

We were a very young country and had very few opportunities of seeing beautiful things, works of art… So, I determined to make it my life’s work if I could.”

– Isabella Stewart Gardner, on the creation of her Museum, 1917

I haven’t written an inspiring places post in quite awhile, actually the last one was at my friend Sandra’s home down the Cape, which was in the fall, click here if you missed it. Our house is still a work zone, blueboard’s up in the living, dining and boys’ bedroom and we’re waiting on the plasterer. So I thought I’d share one of my favorite museum’s in Boston, The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

For Mother’s Day, I really wanted to have a lovely picnic outdoors but Mother Nature prevented this from happening. I exclaimed let’s go to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum! I hadn’t been in years. I took Luke when he visited America for the first time and I think we went a few times before we had the boys but I felt like they wouldn’t really appreciate such a museum until now.

This museum is a feast, not only for the eyes, but all the senses! They’ve built and addition and there are lovely gathering spaces in modern architecture juxtaposed to the historic building. The fragrant flowers are growing inside and out and there are so many beautiful things to enjoy. We had a lovely day there.

The museum was incorporated in 1900 and opened in 1903 and Isabella used her small inheritance to fund it. It was built to a evoke a 15th century Venetian Palace and my favorite part, I think, is the courtyard. I adore hydrangeas and it is currently filled to the brim with them. The courtyard flowers are arranged by the season and change, I think, 9 times a year.

I could have spent the entire day right here.

The giant glass ceiling of the courtyard makes it feel like you’re outside when in this space.

The lighting in this section of the museum is simply amazing.

Our oldest was mesmerized the entire time at the museum, as I’ve told you before, he loves art. He loves to draw and always sees the world so differently. He enjoyed viewing the exhibits. The collection has over 2500 pieces of art – paintings, sculptures, rare books, ceramics, furniture, textiles, photographs and letters.

He LOVED seeing the “Off the Wall” exhibit where you could get very close to the historic European art.

John also spent a lot of time in the courtyard reading about Medusa’s head which is done in mosaic in the middle.

The boys also enjoyed hearing about the mystery surrounding artwork that was stolen from the museum. You can read more about that here.

The collection has many John Singer Sargent paintings, he’s a personal favorite of mine.

He also painted this portrait of Isabella in 1888, this also hangs in the museum.

Unfortunately, it’s a little blurry, but stunning in person.

Some of the rooms are kept quite dark, to help preserve the art, and it was also a very dreary day so it was hard for me to get good photographs.

Each and every part of this museum is filled with a treasure, whether it’s an oil painting, architectural salvage, stained glass or tiles.

I felt like I was back in Spain, look at these!

There is so much to see and we didn’t see everything. Conor was hungry and tired so we ended up enjoying the most delicious lunch at the cafe, followed by a bit of a relax in the library.

The skies cleared and the sun came out. Hooray! We walked around the outdoor gardens, the Monk’s Garden was simply amazing. This walled garden transported us to another place and time. I would never believe we were in the middle of Boston!

We had a wonderful and very inspiring day at Isabella’s museum. She’s done so much to bring art to our town. If you live in Boston or are visiting, this is a must see!