Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Category: Fenway

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum or Fenway Court is a museum in Boston, Massachusetts with a collection of over 2,500 works of European, Asian and American art, including paintings, sculpture, tapestries, and decorative arts. The museum also hosts of historic and contemporary art.

The museum was established in 1903 by Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924), a wealthy patron of the arts. It is housed in a building designed to evoke a Venetian Renaissance palazzo, but it was built entirely from the ground up in Boston, out of new materials, but incorporating numerous architectural fragments from European Gothic and Renaissance structures. The antique elements are seamlessly worked into the design of the turn-of-the-century building. Special tiles were custom designed for the floors, modern concrete was used for some of the structural elements, and antique capitals sit atop modern columns. The interior garden courtyard is covered by a glass roof, with steel support structure original to the building. The building was not brought to America from Venice and reconstructed; that is a common misconception. Gardner began collecting seriously after she received a large inheritance from her father in 1891. Her purchase of Vermeer's The Concert at auction in Paris in 1892 was her first major acquisition. In 1894, Bernard Berenson offered his services in helping her acquire a Botticelli. Berenson helped acquire nearly 70 works of art for her collection.

To honor their founder, the museum offers free admission and occasional special events for anyone named Isabella.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is just one of many Boston area tourist attractions and other things to do in Boston. MustSeeBoston.com is your online Boston travel guide.
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