All that being as it may, how do we feel about this lovely lady?
Isabella Stewart Gardner
John Singer Sargent, 1888
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
John Singer Sargent, 1888
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
As Mrs Gardner was such a high-energy person (which you can see from her intense gaze and open mouth, as though speaking), the portrait took 9 attempts to get right. The low neckline and provocative va-va-voom curves of the artistic philathropist led to her husband asking that it be kept out of public display. Now that they have both been deceased for nearly 100 years, we can ogle all we want - but do we want to?
6 comments:
Not hot. Too stern and grumpy. A google image search brings up photos of her, slightly older, looking sterner and grumpier.
In any case, positioning her against that wallpaper symmetrically makes it look like she has some giant, weird, Princess Amidala-style hairdo.
My only response is that this is a deeply weird portrait. Her head and body look like they are from different people!
The whole bustle arrangement really doesn't 'work' from this angle, does it? Looks like she's being pushed and pulled in different directions by some unseen force. Deeply uncomfortable I suspect.
Not the best portrait, but from what I know about her, I totally dig Isabella Stewart Gardner. Plus, her museum is the site of one of the greatest art heists of all time. Oh, did I mention it was the 20th anniversary of said heist, how appropriate! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Stewart_Gardner_Museum
I was going to comment on the impressive waistline though, and I suspect it is to blame for the severe look!!!
Yes, Jenny. That could also account for the mad staring eyes. Any tighter and they'd be on stalks!
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