Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
By Mia Arruda
Although I’ve only been once, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, will always be one of my favorites. Unlike some of the other museums I’ve had the privilege to visit (and some of those my parents dragged me to when I was young), The Gardner feels like a comfortable space to explore as a non-art historian.
From 1889 to 1901, Isabella Stewart Gardner funded and designed the museum to house her collection of fine art, making it less like a traditional institution and more a window into her personal vision and taste. She reportedly spent an entire year inside the Renaissance-inspired palace arranging her collection, which included paintings, sculptures, furniture, textiles, silver, and ceramics.
When meandering through the Gardner, Isabella’s collection envelops intimately designed spaces. There are details to continuously discover, even within an unchanging assemblage of objects.
This being said some criticism is fair regarding such a collection, seeing as it is inescapably a tribute to one woman’s extreme wealth. As with many museums, paying for the Gardener is inaccessible to many, and questions of repatriation are coupled with a limited number of explanatory museum labels. Acknowledging its issues within the context of today’s ongoing debates about museum culture, I believe the Gardner is still worth visiting.
Besides its design concept, one of the most intriguing pieces of the museum’s history is its robbery in 1990. In the early morning after Saint Patrick’s Day, two disguised “police officers” stole $500 million of art. The two most notable stolen pieces are Vermeer’s The Concert and Rembrandt’s The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. While The Gardner makes little note of this event in its history within the space itself, podcasts, books, and even an entire Netflix series are devoted to figuring out exactly what led to the robbery–was it an inside job or calculated risk related to the mafia? So far, none of the art has been recovered.
Setting the museum and art collection aside, the indoor courtyard and Monk’s Garden add to the overall visitor experience. As a Landscape Architect major, Cornell’s own Michael Van Valkenburg’s redesign of the Monk’s Garden is inspiring, with its curved pathways through soft textured woodland. The space is meant for introspection, and it is perfect after reflecting on so many forms and eras of artwork in the similarly winding galleries.
Such a unique experience makes the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum a must-visit when in “Beantown”.
Mia Arruda is a Sophomore studying Landscape Architecture. One of her favorite travel destinations is Monterey, California, because of its natural beauty and marine life.
