Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Modeled after a Venetian palazzo, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston houses one of the world's most remarkable collections.
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Meet Violet Sargent—John Singer Sargent’s younger sister.Before her marriage in 1891, Violet often acted as a model for ...
06/16/2026

Meet Violet Sargent—John Singer Sargent’s younger sister.

Before her marriage in 1891, Violet often acted as a model for her brother. You can find her in many of his sketches and paintings. This quick, intimate sketch of her was painted outdoors at Nahant in the summer of 1890, while Violet was visiting Boston and staying with her close friend Sally Fairchild.

Isabella acquired the portrait around 1914, and today it hangs in the Blue Room.

🖼️John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) Miss Violet Sargent, 1890. Oil on canvas

at (another) IsabellaFemale rulers throughout history fascinated Isabella, and this fascination is on full display in ...
06/15/2026

at (another) Isabella

Female rulers throughout history fascinated Isabella, and this fascination is on full display in the Dutch Room. Frans Pourbus the Younger was renowned for his courtly paintings of European rulers, whose work is identifiable by his lush depictions of textiles, as seen in this portrait. Swipe to get a closer look!

Image: Frans Pourbus the Younger, Isabella Clara Eugenia, Archduchess of Austria (details), about 1600. Oil on canvas.

💐 Hydrangeas are the stars of the Gardner Courtyard each summer—but how much do you really know about these showy blooms...
06/15/2026

💐 Hydrangeas are the stars of the Gardner Courtyard each summer—but how much do you really know about these showy blooms?

From color-changing sepals and poisonous roots to ancient Greek names and soil chemistry tricks, there’s a lot going on behind the blossoms.

Go with our horticulture team to uncover the science, symbolism, and secrets of the Gardner’s spectacular Hydrangea display.

🔗 https://go.gardnermuseum.org/4mkmCsy

06/11/2026

Thank you to Kate of for sharing this gorgeous recreation of El Jaleo!

Watch through to see in-progress shots and the details 😍

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What has the inspired you to create? 💮 Tag us in your art and photos for a chance to be featured!

06/10/2026

Golden hour in Persephone's impossible garden ☀️

What do you give the friend who has everything? How about a plaster cast of your own hand? 👍Which is exactly what compos...
06/10/2026

What do you give the friend who has everything? How about a plaster cast of your own hand? 👍

Which is exactly what composer-violinist Charles Martin Loeffler, one of Isabella Stewart Gardner’s closest friends, did for Christmas in 1914.

Casts of famous people’s faces and hands were popular mementos in the 19th century, and Loeffler could certainly be considered famous.

He was a prolific composer who spent nearly three decades with the , helped found the , and played a major role in bringing impressionistic music to the forefront of the American musical scene.

When Isabella completed the Museum, Loeffler used the Music Room to debut “Pagan Poem,” one of his most famous works.

The cast of his hand, curled around the neck of his instrument, now lives beneath his portrait in the Yellow Room Musician Case.

🎻 Learn about the birthday gift Isabella gave Loeffler: a Stradivarius.
🔗 go.gardnermuseum.org/49M36l8

✋: P.P. Caproni and Brother (1892-1927) Charles Martin Loeffler's Hand, 1914. Plaster.
🖼: John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). Charles Martin Loeffler, 1903. Oil on canvas.

In 1884, Isabella and Jack Gardner first visited the Palazzo Barbaro, a Venetian palace owned by Bostonians Daniel and A...
06/05/2026

In 1884, Isabella and Jack Gardner first visited the Palazzo Barbaro, a Venetian palace owned by Bostonians Daniel and Ariana Curtis. The palazzo became the gathering place of a group of American and English expatriates, including the painters John Singer Sargent, James McNeil Whistler, and Ralph Curtis, and the art connoisseur Bernard Berenson.
Isabella Stewart Gardner commissioned Joseph Lindon Smith to create this watercolor of a stairway within the courtyard of the Palazzo in 1892.
🖼️: Joseph Lindon Smith (Pawtucket, Rhode Island, 1863 - 1950, Dublin, New Hampshire). The Courtyard Stairway Of The Palazzo Barbaro, 1894

Thank you to Samela St. Pierre (3eyed.tiger on Instagram) for sharing this beautiful sketch from a recent visit! 😍 What ...
06/02/2026

Thank you to Samela St. Pierre (3eyed.tiger on Instagram) for sharing this beautiful sketch from a recent visit! 😍

What has the Gardner Museum inspired you to create? 💮 Send us your art and photos for a chance to be featured!

"Curse the man who invented greens!" That is what painter Dodge Macknight wrote to Isabella Stewart Gardner in 1908 whil...
06/01/2026

"Curse the man who invented greens!"

That is what painter Dodge Macknight wrote to Isabella Stewart Gardner in 1908 while struggling to capture the shifting colors of Northern Mexico.

Look closely at his watercolor, "The Road to Córdoba." Instead of a flat green, Macknight layered vibrant washes of orange, red, violet, and blue to build the vegetation.

What do you think? Did Dodge Macknight get his colors right in the end?

🖼️: Dodge MacKnight (American, 1860–1950), The Road to Córdoba, 1907. Watercolor on paper.

Why are there two matching 16th-century Turkish tiles in New England, 5,000 miles from home?On a window ledge in our Spa...
05/29/2026

Why are there two matching 16th-century Turkish tiles in New England, 5,000 miles from home?

On a window ledge in our Spanish Cloister sits an İznik tile painted with a lush, winding vine of tulips, carnations, and hyacinths. Remarkably, an identical tile lives just 50 miles away at the Providence Art Club.

We don't know who designed them, but we know their placement was intentional. Isabella Stewart Gardner deliberately sat her fragment right between the Italianate Courtyard and the Spanish Cloister, forcing a global visual conversation between Islamic, Italian, and Hispanic art.

Look closely on your next visit to help us ponder this bi-continental mystery.

Address

25 Evans Way
Boston, MA
02115

Opening Hours

Monday 11am - 5pm
Wednesday 11am - 5pm
Thursday 11am - 9pm
Friday 11am - 5pm
Saturday 11am - 5pm
Sunday 11am - 5pm

Telephone

(617) 566-1401

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