Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

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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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“I and my skeleton will be on hand Wednesday...I shall wear it on the inside…” 💀The Museum's Archives are full of unexpe...
10/22/2026

“I and my skeleton will be on hand Wednesday...I shall wear it on the inside…” 💀

The Museum's Archives are full of unexpected humor, including this illustrated RSVP from Isabella’s friend Joseph Lindon Smith, a painter and prolific doodler in her guest book.

You can find Smith’s paintings in the Museum’s galleries, including "Bust of Akhenaten" in the Blue Room (swipe to see it). And you can find many screenshots of his doodles in our and meme folder. 🤭

Enjoyed this little archival discovery? See more of his work at go.gardnermuseum.org/3UhsH0C
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Image: Joseph Lindon Smith, Illustrated Note to Isabella Stewart Gardner from the Ludlow, Trinity Terrace, Boston, 2 January 1897 (detail). Ink on paper.

: "Overlooking the Courtyard" by Andrew Kouris ()We love seeing the Gardner through the eyes of our visitors! What has ...
10/20/2026

: "Overlooking the Courtyard" by Andrew Kouris ()

We love seeing the Gardner through the eyes of our visitors! What has the inspired you to create?

💮 Share your art and photos with us for a chance to be featured in a future spotlight
🔗 go.gardnermuseum.org/ugc

Is Madame Manet haunted? 😱 Maybe, but not by a ghost. By an earlier version of herself.This eerie image is an X-ray of É...
10/18/2026

Is Madame Manet haunted? 😱

Maybe, but not by a ghost. By an earlier version of herself.

This eerie image is an X-ray of Édouard Manet's portrait of his mother, painted around 1866. See those extra hands? Manet changed their position as he worked, leaving his first attempt hidden beneath the paint.

And that wasn't his only revision. Look closely—what else can you spot?

There's nothing unusual about an artist changing their mind. They experiment, reconsider, and paint over earlier ideas all the time. Sometimes, they even reuse a canvas, leaving an entirely different painting hidden beneath the new one.

But by the time a painting hangs on a gallery wall, most of that trial and error is invisible to us.

With tools like X-ray imaging, conservators can uncover traces of earlier versions, helping us understand the artist's creative process, how a painting was made—and what's happened to it since.

Next time you're in the Blue Room, pay Madame Manet a visit—and take a look around. What other paintings might be hiding earlier versions of themselves?

🔎 Learn more about what our conservators uncovered on the blog: go.gardnermuseum.org/4eDHARI

It's a chrysanthemum wonderland in the courtyard these days 🏵️
10/17/2026

It's a chrysanthemum wonderland in the courtyard these days 🏵️

Don't have a crew to cheer for at the Head of the Charles this weekend? Consider taking requests—like Isabella. 🚣In 1890...
10/16/2026

Don't have a crew to cheer for at the Head of the Charles this weekend? Consider taking requests—like Isabella. 🚣

In 1890, Isabella and Jack spent a week at England's Henley Royal Regatta, watching the races from a houseboat named "Sunbeam" on the River Thames.

During the competition, supporters of Oxford's Balliol College Boat Club approached Isabella and her friends to ask if they wouldn't mind shouting “Well rowed, Balliol!” as their crew passed.

They'd come to the right boatful of Americans.

Isabella loved sports of all kinds. Well into her 70s, she was known to drag anyone she could to Red Sox games. And she cheered so enthusiastically at her great-nephew's competitions that even he—the first Harvard athlete to earn 11 varsity letters—once asked her to tone it down.

Their friend Ralph Curtis was there too, and painted this watercolor of the regatta. You can find it hanging in the Museum's Vatichino—though you'll have to imagine the cheering.
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🎨 Ralph Wormeley Curtis, *Henley: The Regatta*, 1890. Watercolor.

Chrysanthemums bloom with the autumnal equinox, a fleeting moment when day and night stand in perfect balance. Their bri...
10/14/2026

Chrysanthemums bloom with the autumnal equinox, a fleeting moment when day and night stand in perfect balance.

Their bright colors and playful shapes are the perfect antidote to Fall's fading light.

Come by for a floral pick-me-up now through the end of November.

Do you find your midnight dreary? Do you ponder, weak and weary? 🐦‍⬛Here's a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore...
10/13/2026

Do you find your midnight dreary? Do you ponder, weak and weary? 🐦‍⬛

Here's a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore: Isabella's copy of "The Raven" — but wait, there's more!

Published in 1875, this edition of Poe’s famous poem features a series of striking lithographs by a most unexpected artist: Édouard Manet.

🔎 Read Isabella's edition yourself: go.gardnermuseum.org/4hVhVov
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📘: Edgar Allan Poe (Boston, 1809 - 1849, Baltimore) The Raven [Le corbeau], 1875

Each spring, our Horticulture team begins an intricate process to grow magnificent, single-stem chrysanthemums using oki...
10/12/2026

Each spring, our Horticulture team begins an intricate process to grow magnificent, single-stem chrysanthemums using okigu, a Japanese horticultural technique rarely practiced in the U.S.

Months of meticulous care, including prudent pinching and disbudding throughout the growing season, encourage the plant to produce one colossal blossom atop a single stem over four feet tall.

🔗 Discover the full story of Chrysanthemums at the Gardner: go.gardnermuseum.org/3XG4sH6

🔎 Searching for Answers: Isabella’s Native American Basket Tucked away in the Macknight Room is one of only two Indige...
10/11/2026

🔎 Searching for Answers: Isabella’s Native American Basket

Tucked away in the Macknight Room is one of only two Indigenous North American objects in the Gardner Museum: a decorated, woven basket from the Pacific Northwest.

Originally, all that was known about it was that Isabella acquired it sometime before 1924.

With the help of leaders and experts from Tribal Cultural Centers and Councils, researchers specializing in Native American art from several museums, a high-powered microscope, and fiber experts, our Conservation and Collections staff set out to uncover more information about its origin and history.

What they found answered some questions—and raised several more.

🔗 Read the full story: https://go.gardnermuseum.org/4yBeMRS
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📷: Fiber sample under magnification, 200x, transmitted light.
🧺: Native American, possibly Makah, Quinault, or Quileute, Basket, 19th century. Woven grass and cedar bark, 5.4 x 10.5 cm (2 1/8 x 4 1/8 in.)

This Virgin and Child by Francesco Pesellino, dating from the mid-1450s, was one of the most reproduced paintings in 15t...
10/10/2026

This Virgin and Child by Francesco Pesellino, dating from the mid-1450s, was one of the most reproduced paintings in 15th-century Florence—but when Isabella acquired it in 1892, it was the first work by Pesellino in an American collection.

Swipe through to take a closer look—can you make out the lines of the artist's original drawing underneath the paint?

Pesellino was the most innovative painter in Florence during his time—stop by this painting in the Rafael room on your next visit to see why!

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Image: Francesco Pesellino, Virgin and Child with a Swallow (detail), about 1453-1457. Tempera on panel.

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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