Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 160 pages
- Published by: Yale University Press December 27, 1995
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0300063415
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0300063417
-
Book Dimensions:
9.7 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
- Weighs: 1.1 pounds
Product Description
This gorgeous book is the first comprehensive guide written in a generation to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, home of one of the preeminent collections of art in the United States with more than 2,500 treasures, ranging from ancient Chinese bronzes to Titian`s Europa to the first
Matisse acquired by an American museum.
Reader ReviewsHaving been to the ISGM (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum) before reading either "Mrs. Jack" or this book, if planning a trip to the museum I highly recommend you read at least one of these books. The museum is truly magnificent, however my only criticism is that the administration of the museum cannot seem to decide if they have a "house museum" (like the Newport mansions) or an art museum. There is precious little information posted within the meusum to tell you what it is you're looking at - the guidebooks available at the museum woefully inadequate. After reading Mrs. Jack I realize that much of this may have been stipulated by Isabella herself - she expected you to know what it was you were seeing without cheats like descriptions. Art for art's sake. It did not matter if Rembrandt painted a canvas - you either like it or you don't - merely wanting to see it because it's a priceless Rembrandt is too bourgeois for Isabella to have considered. In her day, in her level of society, you could still buy a Rembrandt or a Vermeer, 100 years later this is a lot harder to do, making these paintings more rare to us than her. She knew John Singer Sargent personally, so having your portrait painted by him was probably less of a big deal than we see it as today - anyone in her level of society could hire him, so to her - what was the big deal? 100 years more time has made it a big deal to us.
Search for books at
