Historical Hot or Not II
Last week, we encountered much debate regarding the aesthetic appeal of Henry Wellcome, founder of the Wellcome Collection. This week, we turn to a female collector, the fin-de-siecle Bostonian eccentric, Isabella Stewart Gardner. Her mansion, crammed to the brim with Old Masters, Impressionists, and decorative arts, was left in her will along with an endownment and stipulations for keeping it open as a museum. Kitty corner from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the collection has fallen victim to some high-profile (and still unsolved) art crimes, as well as the misguided architectural interventions of Renzo Piano.
All that being as it may, how do we feel about this lovely lady?
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?
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?
Comments
In any case, positioning her against that wallpaper symmetrically makes it look like she has some giant, weird, Princess Amidala-style hairdo.