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Boston's Apollo: Thomas McKeller & John Singer Sargent
$45.00
Winner of the 2020 George Wittenborn Memorial Book Award from
The Art Libraries Society of North America
In 1916, John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) met Thomas Eugene McKeller (1890-1962) a young African American elevator attendant at Boston’s Hotel Vendome. McKeller became the principal model for Sargent’s murals in the new wing of the Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, among the painter’s most ambitious works. Sargent’s nude studies and sketches from this project attest to a close collaboration between the two men that unfolded over nearly ten years. Featuring drawings given by Sargent to Isabella Stewart Gardner and published in full for the first time, a portrait of McKeller, and archival materials reconstructing his life and relationship with Sargent, this book opens new avenues into artist-model relationships and transforms our understanding of Sargent’s iconic American paintings. Essays offer the first biography of Thomas McKeller and a window into African American life in early 20th century Roxbury. They address the artist’s sexuality, his models, and consider questions of race and gender.
224 pages
Published by Yale Press, 2020
Hardcover
9 x 12 inches
Titian: Love, Desire, Death
$40.00
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: A Guide
$24.95
The authors look at masterpieces by Botticelli, Rembrandt, Titian, and others, as well as hidden treasures, including decorative arts, correspondence, and photographs. Rather than positioning the museum simply as a historical gem, they present it as a site for forging connections between past and present and reinforcing the founder’s legacy of sustaining contemporary art, music, and education. Featuring all-new photography, the book captures the uniqueness of this museum, helping us consider anew what the museum meant in Gardner’s time and what it means in ours.
By Dr. Christina M. Nielsen, previous William and Lia Poorvu Curator of the Collection at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (2014-2018), with Nathaniel Silver, previous William and Lia Poorvu Curator of the Collection at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (2018-2022), and Casey Riley, former Curator at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
205 pages
Published by Yale University Press, 2017
Paperback
Measures 6.5" x 0.8" x 10"
Isabella Stewart Gardner: A Life
$24.95
Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924) assembled an extraordinary collection of art from diverse cultures and eras—and built a Venetian-style palazzo in Boston to share these exquisite treasures with the world. But her life and work remains shrouded in myth. Separating fiction and fact, this book paints an unforgettable portrait of Gardner, drawing on her substantial personal archive and including previously unpublished findings to offer new perspectives on her life and her construction of identity.
Nathaniel Silver and Diana Seave Greenwald shed new light on Gardner’s connections to minority communities in Boston, her views on suffrage and other issues of the day, the sources of her and her husband’s wealth, and her ties to politicians, writers, and artists. What emerges is a multifaceted portrait of a trailblazing collector and patron of the arts—from Italian Renaissance paintings to Chinese antiquities—who built a museum unprecedented in its curatorial vision.
Beautifully illustrated, this book challenges any portrayal of Gardner as a straightforward feminist hero, revealing instead an exceptional, complex woman who created a legendary museum and played a vibrant and influential role in the art world.
By Nathaniel Silver, former William and Lia Poorvu Curator of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Collection, and Diana Seave Greenwald, current William and Lia Poorvu Curator of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Collection
112 pages
Published by Princeton University Press, 2022
6.25 x 9.75 in.
Mrs. Jack: A Biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner
$10.95
An in-depth biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner of Boston, via New York, in the 19th century. An American charmer and art collector, Isabella Stewart Gardner and her husband Jack kept company with many leading cultural figures of the day including Henry James, John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler.
By Louise Hall Tharp
408 pages
Reprinted by CS Graphics, 2016
Paperback
8 x 6 inches
Gardner Quote Canvas Tote
$21.95
Go green Gardner style with this marvelous canvas quote, featuring Mrs. Gardner's favored nasturtium flowers. In a letter to Bernard Berenson, Mrs. Gardner referenced the flora growing at the Gardner’s Brookline estate Green Hill, which Jack Gardner inherited from his father in 1884. Here, Mrs. Gardner continued to cultivate her lifelong love of horticulture. The spirit of Mrs. Gardner’s passion for plants blooms perennially in the Courtyard and throughout her Museum.
11 x 18 inches with an 11 inch drop
Titian's Rape of Europa
$25.00
Dubbed “a mighty poet” by American author Henry James, Titian remains one of the most celebrated painters in Western art. Since his death in 1576, the artist’s reputation has never waned. In Gilded Age America, Titian paintings became the peerless prizes of leading collectors and quickly rose to the top of Isabella Stewart Gardner’s wish list. In 1896, she landed his masterpiece, The Rape of Europa. It became the sole example of his celebrated cycle of poesie outside of Europe, inspired an entire gallery in her newly built museum, and contributed to England’s national outcry over the loss of its art treasures. This book – the first dedicated to Europa – tells the painting’s story in Gardner’s time, in Titian’s, and offers rare insights into the artist’s virtuoso technique.
Published here for the first time, dramatically enlarged details of the composition demonstrate Titian’s deft touch and dazzlingly technical accomplishment. These bravura passages recently revealed by the painting’s comprehensive cleaning – the first since its arrival in America – are accompanied by commentary from the conservator, Gianfranco Pocobene, who returned Europa to its original glory.
This book accompanies the Gardner Museum exhibition, Titian: Women, Myth, and Power, reuniting his poesie series in the United States for the first time. Gift at the Gardner also carries a hardcover title, Titian: Love, Desire, Death, which is the National Gallery’s exhibition catalog for the same suite of paintings.
Edited by Nathaniel Silver, previous William and Lia Poorvu Curator of the Collection at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (2018-2022)
80 pages
Published by Paul Holberton Publishing, 2020
Paperback
Measures 9.3" x 7.6"
Isabella Stewart Gardner in Venice Ornament
$16.95
This ornament is based on Isabella Stewart Gardner's likeness in Anders Zorn's 1984 portrait of her at the Palazzo Barbaro in Venice, where she often stayed and entertained an international set of cultural celebrities. This depiction perfectly captures Gardner’s vibrant personality as she comes in from a balcony to encourage dinner party guests to join her for the display of fireworks over the Grand Canal.Seeing this painting on display in Gardner’s museum in 1906, Anne O’Hagan Shinn, a suffragette and an early commentator on the collection, described the painting as a “flamelike incarnation of vigor and life—impression helped, doubtless, by the wonderful yellow gown which swathes the strong and supple figure that seems to leap from the canvas.”
Ornaments of other subjects, artists, authors, and notable figures inspired by Isabella and the Museum also available. Complete your collection of Gardner Museum-exclusive ornaments with Zorn's vision of the Museum's founder!
Stolen
$24.95
For the first time, The Gardner Museum has authorized a book on the daring theft from the Museum of 13 priceless works of art, including 3 Rembrandts and Vermeer’s The Concert, together worth over $500 million.
In 1903, Isabella Stewart Gardner opened her extraordinary museum, modeled after a Venetian palazzo, for the "enjoyment and education of the public forever." She had amassed an impressive collection including some of the finest masterpieces by Rembrandt, Titian, Raphael, and Botticelli, as well as works by her contemporaries such as Sargent, Whistler, and Degas. The art works included paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints, furniture, ceramics, glassware, books, manuscripts and ephemera―all but 13 of which remain in place today.
In the early morning hours of March 18th, 1990, two thieves disguised as police officers talked their way into the museum, and tied up the night guards. They cut some of the paintings from their frames and stacked up others to take, leaving behind a priceless Rembrandt leaning against a chest. It is believed that the thieves “came for the Rembrandts”― but they also stole works by Vermeer, Degas, Manet, and Flinck, as well as a Chinese beaker and a Napoleonic eagle finial. Eighty-one minutes later, they were gone.
Stolen gives an inside look at the robbery and explores the impact of the missing works with commentary from the Museum’s Director, Curators, and the Chief Investigator. They describe how the theft, often called a crime against humanity, has affected visitors and disrupted Isabella Stewart Gardner's careful arrangement of the works. The book is highly visual, with original photographs of the stolen objects, as well as how they originally looked placed in the galleries. Stolen, the only book on the theft commissioned by the Gardner Museum, provides the context to a brazen heist that left one of the world’s great museums in search of its lost masterpieces.
The Museum is offering $10 million for safe return of all the works; the crime remains the largest unsolved art theft in history.
Learn even more about the art on WBUR's podcast Last Seen.
By Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum37 pages
Published by Applewood Books, 2018
Hardcover
10.5 x 8.5 inches
Isabella Stewart Gardner Ornament
$16.95
This ornament of Isabella Stewart Gardner is directly inspired by her portrait painted by John Singer Sargent and displayed in the Gothic Room.
Mrs. Gardner sat for Sargent during his visit to Boston in January 1888. He was paid $3000 for the portrait, which was exhibited to great acclaim at Boston’s St. Botolph Club. The work also inspired gossip and legend: someone jokingly titled it “Woman: An Enigma,” while others believed that the sensuous display of flesh deliberately echoed the scandal recently created by Sargent’s Madame X. Mrs. Gardner herself said that she rejected eight renderings of the face until she was satisfied.
Jack Gardner seems to have asked his wife not to publicly show the portrait again while he was alive, and indeed the portrait was placed in the Gothic Room, which remained private until Mrs. Gardner’s death. In its gallery, surrounded by altarpieces, stained glass, and religious statuary, the sacramental quality noted by nineteenth-century reviewers is even more pronounced.
Ornaments of other subjects, artists, authors, and notable figures inspired by Isabella and the Museum are also available. Click here to explore our Ornament Collection!
Measures 1.5" x 5.5"
RBG Ornament
$16.95
This hand-sewn ornament celebrates the iconic Associate Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This advocate for gender equality and women's rights would have surely been of a favorite of trailblazing Isabella Stewart Gardner.
Are your family holidays getting interesting? Dissent like RBG!
Ornaments of other subjects, artists, authors, and notable figures inspired by Isabella and the Museum also available.
Vincent van Gogh Ornament
$16.95
Iconic sunflower in hand, this ornament of Vincent van Gogh is dually inspired by his famous self portraits and his Sunflowers series.Ornaments of other subjects, artists, authors, and notable figures inspired by Isabella and the Museum also available.
Nasturtium Seed Packet
$10.00
With our nasturtium seed packet, anyone can grow the very same variety of flowers that are cultivated during our annual tradition of hanging colorful displays of nasturtium vines. Contained in this packet are 30 nasturtium seeds, hand packed in the Museum. Each packet contains instructions for these easy-to-grow seeds.
Season: Annuals
USDA Zones: 3 - 10
Vining height measures 60"
Bloom season: Mid-summer through fall
Environment: Full Sun
Deer Resistant: Yes
El Jaleo Ornament
$16.95
During his travels in Spain in 1879, John Singer Sargent was mulling over a major work of art in which he could express his love of Gypsy music, dance, and picturesque costumes. On his return to Paris he set to work on a wide horizontal picture whose proportions simulated the shallow stage space of popular musical establishments. He named the painting El Jaleo to suggest the name of a dance, the jaleo de jerez, while counting on the broader meaning jaleo, which means ruckus or hubbub.The painting was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1882 with the more explicit title El Jaleo: Danse des gitanes (Dance of the Gypsies). The painting was purchased by American businessman and diplomat T. Jefferson Coolidge in 1882, and was given to Mrs. Gardner as a gift in 1914. Then, as now, El Jaleo resides in the Spanish Cloister of the Gardner Museum, just off the famous Courtyard.
This ornament captures the central figure of Sargent's work, the semi-veiled flamenco dancer, in fluid motion with her skirt in one hand while the other flourishes with the music. Have Sargent's El Jaleo dancer gracefully twirl her way onto your Christmas tree this holiday season!
Ornaments of other subjects, artists, authors, and notable figures inspired by Isabella and the Museum are also available. Click here to explore our Ornament Collection!
Measures 2.5" x 4"
The Secret Language of Flowers: Notes on the Hidden Meanings of Flowers in Art
$36.00
During his 2012 residency at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel (born 1964) delved into the archives of the magnificent garden that Isabella Stewart Gardner cultivated around her residence.Othoniel examined the Museum and photographed the flowers in the tapestries, ironwork, architecture, furnishings and paintings, in such masterpieces as van Dyck's Portrait of a Woman with its innocuous rose, Piermatteo d'Amelia's Annunciation with its majestic lily and Bartolomé Bermejo's Saint Engracia with its enigmatic palm.
This gift-worthy volume presents his art-historical ABC of these flowers, from Acanthus to Zea Mays.
By Jean-Michel Othoniel
192 pages
Published by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2015
Hardcover
5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
John Singer Sargent Ornament
$16.95
This ornament of Gardner's friend and 19th-century artist John Singer Sargent comes from a print by John Templeman Coolidge of Sargent painting in the Museum's Gothic Room.John Singer Sargent was the first artist-in-residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. During the month of April 1903 he slept in a guest room (now called the Macknight Room) and created new works of art in his temporary studio, the Gothic Room.
John Templeman Coolidge, an artist and friend of Isabella’s, took several photographs of Sargent painting the portrait of Gretchen Osgood Warren and her daughter Rachel in the Gothic Room. These candid pictures show Sargent in a whirl of activity with brush and palette in hand—and a cigarette in his mouth.
Ornaments of other subjects, artists, authors, and notable figures inspired by Isabella and the Museum are also available. Click here to explore our Ornament Collection!
Measures 1.5" x 5.5"
Jane Austen Ornament
$16.95
This ornament features 18th century author Jane Austen, holding a quill and a manuscript. Austen was born in 1775; she authored several major novels, many published posthumously, after her death is 1817.
To borrow from Jane herself, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single person in possession of a Christmas tree, must be in want of ornaments."
Ornaments of other subjects, artists, authors, and notable figures inspired by Isabella and the Museum also available.
Frida Kahlo Ornament
$16.95
Frida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican artist who painted many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico.
This ornament of Frida Kahlo shows the painter with palette and brush in hand, wearing a beautifully colored dress.
Ornaments of other subjects, artists, authors, and notable figures inspired by Isabella and the Museum also available.
Courtyard Puzzle
$26.00
Take home a piece of Isabella's Courtyard with this puzzle!
This 300 piece puzzle features the Fenway Courtyard with its annual nasturtium display. The puzzle comes in a paperboard box so you can safely store your puzzle.
Photograph by Clements & Howcroft, 2009
Puzzle measure 11 x 17 inches
300 pieces
Monet with Straw Hat Ornament
Sold Out
As their business grew, more innovative designs were needed, so they began working with a partner in India. The Indian-made ornaments use the traditional method of zardozi embroidery, an intricate sewing technique that was developed to embellish courtly robes with gold wires and jewels. Zardozi work is rare, but because of the skill that is needed to create the ornaments, it continues to be handed down from generation to generation.
Nasturtium Window Ornament
$16.95
Inspired by the Gardner Museum's annual Nasturtium Display, this ornament features the blooms gently adorning the Venetian palazzo windows of Mrs. Gardner's Fenway Palace.Isabella Stewart Gardner began the annual tradition of hanging colorful displays of nasturtium vines that cascaded from the Courtyard balconies at Fenway. The vines continue to come alive during the week before Easter as the Gardner Museum celebrates the arrival of spring.
Ornaments of other subjects, artists, authors, and notable figures inspired by Isabella and the Museum also available. Complete your collection of Gardner Museum-exclusive ornaments with the Nasturtium Window Ornament!
Nasturtium photography by Sean Dungan
Courtyard Note Card Set
$24.95
Throughout the year, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's always-blooming Courtyard is transformed through a series of nine dramatic seasonal displays that reflect Isabella's passion for gardens as well as the skill and dedication of the Museum's horticulture staff.
From orchids to nasturtiums to Japanese-style chrysanthemums, there's always something new to discover thanks to the changing season and the rotation of plants. Most of the plants used for the Courtyard are grown in the Museum's temperature-controlled Hingham greenhouses and trucked to the Palace location where they are rotated in order to keep the displays in pea condition.
This set of eight note cards with envelopes showcases different views of our lush Courtyard.
6.25 x 4.75 inches box
Michelangelo Ornament
$16.95
The Italian High Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect and poet Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni—known more commonly by his first name, Michelangelo—was both known as a great master of his time, along with Raphael and Leonardo di Vinci. Some of his most prominent sketches are a part of the Gardner Museum Collection.
Out of the Gardner Museum and into your home, this ornament is sure to make your Christmas tree a masterpiece!
This ornament of the Master, his tools, and his sculpture is sure to remind you of the artist's work which you may have enjoyed in Mrs. Gardner's collection.
Ornaments of other artists featured in the Gardner Museum also available. Complete your collection of artists with our handsome Michelangelo!
Courtyard Magnet
$6.00
Take home a piece of Isabella's Courtyard with this magnet.Isabella Stewart Gardner began the annual tradition of hanging colorful displays of nasturtium vines that cascaded from the Courtyard balconies at Fenway. The vines continue to come alive during the week before Easter as the Gardner Museum celebrates the arrival of spring.
Photograph by Sean Dugan
Photograph by Clements & Howcroft, 2009
4 x 3 inches
Made in the USA
Blue Suffragist Ornament
$16.95
Isabella Stewart Gardner was an ardent supporter of women’s educational and social advancement during her lifetime. Throughout her life, she kept in close company with many female trailblazers, including Julia Ward Howe.
This ornament of an American Suffragist wearing a 'Votes for Women' banner is a perfect addition to your Christmas tree this holiday season.
Ornaments of other subjects, artists, authors, and notable figures inspired by Isabella and the Museum also available.
Botticelli's Venus Ornament
$16.95
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is home to three of Sandro Botticelli's finest works: The Tragedy of Lucretia, The Nativity, and Virgin and Child with an Angel.This ornament features the figure of the goddess Venus arriving at the shore after her birth when she had emerged from the sea fully grown. She is instantly recognizable from Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, currently on display in the Uffizi Gallery in Italy.
Ornaments of other subjects, artists, authors, and notable figures inspired by Isabella and the Museum also available!
Leonardo da Vinci Ornament
Sold Out
As their business grew, more innovative designs were needed, so they began working with a partner in India. The Indian-made ornaments use the traditional method of zardozi embroidery, an intricate sewing technique that was developed to embellish courtly robes with gold wires and jewels. Zardozi work is rare, but because of the skill that is needed to create the ornaments, it continues to be handed down from generation to generation.
Harriet Tubman Ornament
$16.95
Harriet Tubman was an 19th century abolitionist and political activist. She was born into slavery circa 1822. Tubman escaped slavery and assisted in some thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved people, family and friends via the Underground Railroad.
This ornament of the heroic Harriet Tubman emphasizes the danger associated in her missions. She carries a lamp to help guide her way, a shotgun over her shoulder, and a messenger bag.
Ornaments of other subjects and historical figures associated with the Gardner Museum also available.
St. Nicolas specializes in bespoke handmade hanging decorations. For over 25 years, they worked with a small charity in Thailand that helps disadvantaged rural women find work in their community, rather than having to leave home. Today, some 200 skilled women work at home hand sewing the decorations and many have been doing so for more than ten years!
As their business grew, more innovative designs were needed, so they began working with a partner in India. The Indian-made ornaments use the traditional method of zardozi embroidery, an intricate sewing technique that was developed to embellish courtly robes with gold wires and jewels. Zardozi work is rare, but because of the skill that is needed to create the ornaments, it continues to be handed down from generation to generation.
Monks Garden Turmeric Tea
$16.00
Monks Garden Turmeric Tea is from our line of loose teas inspired by the art in Isabella Stewart Gardner's Collection and blended by Elmwood Inn Fine Teas.Both turmeric and dried ginger, the main ingredients in this caffeine-free infusion, are known for their anti-inflammatory benefits. We've added flower petals and Middle Eastern spices to this colorful blend which steeps a relaxing cup of tea - reminiscent of a walk through our Monks Garden.
All organic ingredients: Ginger, cardamom, turmeric, hibiscus, clove, rose petals, marigold petals, and leaf stevia.
NET WT. 3.5 oz (100G)
Shakespeare Ornament
$16.95
Though he be but little, he is fierce! This ornament of the Bard himself—the ideal gift for the Shakespeare lover—perfectly captures England's greatest poet and playwright with a play in his hand, looking dashing in his doublet of black and gold.Ornaments of other characters from Shakespeare's plays also available.
Ornaments of other subjects and authors featured in the Gardner Museum also available. Complete your collection of Gardner Museum-inspired ornaments with William Shakespeare!
Belle's Rose Tea
$16.00
For centuries, Chinese tea merchants have carefully created blends for tea drinkers in both London and Boston.Featuring aromatic rose petals, this Chinese black tea was a popular blend for tea parties at the beginning of the 20th century. Isabella Stewart Gardner (called ‘Belle’ by her close friends) hosted many such tea events in her Fenway Palace.
This tea comes from our collection of loose teas inspired by the Museum and blended by Elmwood Inn Fine Teas.
Ingredients: Black Chinese tea, rose petals
NET WT. 3.5 oz (100G)
Elizabeth Bennet Ornament
$16.95
Elizabeth Bennet—also known to friends and family as Eliza or Lizzy—is the protagonist of the 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. In this beautiful handmade ornament, she wears a bonnet and a hand-embroidered dress.Ornaments of other subjects, artists, authors, and notable figures inspired by Isabella and the Museum also available.
Mozart Ornament
$16.95
Mrs. Gardner espoused a deep love for music and performance. The Museum keeps this passion for music alive in the present with concerts and music-themed events.
To that end, we present this ornament of the Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, complete with his era-specific powdered wig and ruffled shirt. In his gloved hand, he clutches a musical score.
Ornaments of other subjects and musicians featured in the Gardner Museum also available. Complete your collection of Gardner Museum-inspired ornaments with Mozart!
Young Rembrandt Ornament
$16.95
This ornament of a young Rembrandt is based on his self-portrait that hangs in the Dutch room. Purchased by Isabella in 1896, this painting is said by our first director, Morris Carter, to be the first that she acquired with “the intention of developing a real museum collection.”Much like the portrait from which the ornament originates, this figure of a twenty-three-year-old Rembrandt is all about the costume: the plumed cap, silk scarf, and gold necklace will stand out on your Christmas tree!
Ornaments of other subjects, artists, authors, and notable figures inspired by Isabella and the Museum also available. Complete your collection of Gardner Museum-exclusive ornaments with Young Rembrandt!
Medusa Ornament
$16.95
Evocative of the gorgon that lies at the very heart of the Museum, this ornament of Medusa with her serpentine locks is said to have the power to ward off evil (and will surely not turn you into stone).
Ornaments of other subjects, artists, authors, and notable figures inspired by Isabella and the Museum also available.
Edgar Allen Poe Ornament
$16.95
Within the many books held in Museum's Blue Room–where Isabella Stewart Gardner welcomed concert goers and held ladies' receptions–are three titles by Edgar Allen Poe: Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque: Volume I, and Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque: Volume II.
This ornament of author Edgar Allen Poe features Poe holding a copy of The Raven–one of his most well-known works–while the titular raven perches on his shoulder.
Ornaments of other literary figures featured in the Gardner Museum also available. Complete your collection of Gardner Museum-inspired ornaments with Edgar Allen Poe!
Rosie the Riveter Ornament
$16.95
With her hair in a red kerchief and her sleeves pulled up, Rosie is ready to work on your tree! As a reminder to stay strong, Rosie flexes her forearm.
This handmade ornament of the riveting Rosie makes a great gift for all the strong women in your life.
Ornaments of other subjects, artists, authors, and notable figures inspired by Isabella and the Museum also available.
Courtyard Mums Scarf
$47.00
Based in Somerville, MA, Printed Village regularly issues challenges to artists around the world, creating unique and wearable designs from their submissions.
The Courtyard Mums scarf design is the winning style from a Gardner Museum-inspired challenge, created by artist Cathy Hunt. Participating artists drew inspiration from the Gardner's Courtyard.
75 x 37 inches
100% Polyester
Machine Washable
Nasturtium Photo Tote
$4.00
Isabella Stewart Gardner began the annual tradition of hanging colorful displays of nasturtium vines that cascaded from the Courtyard balconies at Fenway. The vines continue to come alive during the week before Easter as the Gardner Museum celebrates the arrival of spring.
Measures 16" x 6" x 12"Made of laminated textile
Lavender and Honey Dark Chocolate Bar
$8.95
We collaborated with Boxborough, MA chocolatiers Lala and Neethu of Two Friends Chocolate to create our Courtyard Confections line of chocolates inspired by the Gardner Museum. These marvelous bars highlight the complex flavors of edible flowers featured in the Courtyard.This bar features a fragrant lavender and honey blend folded into a smooth dark chocolate. A crowd favorite!
Each bar is hand-wrapped in letterpress papers from Florence, Italy.
Allergen warning: Contains soy. Bars are manufactured in a facility that also processes milk, peanuts, and other tree nuts.
El Jaleo Puzzle
$26.00
El Jaleo
1882
John Singer Sargent, American, 1856-1925
Images like El Jaleo lean toward the daring, risky, unconventional, dramatic, erotically off-center, and odd. Because nomadic groups were believed to ignore ethical principles and exalted superstition over orthodox religion, they endured oppression in numerous countries during the nineteenth century, but artists and bohemians idealized them as free spirits. Bizet's opera Carmen, first performed in Paris in 1875, scandalized the public with its tale of a proud, lusty Andalusian protagonist torn between an army officer and a toreador.
During his travels in Spain in 1879, Sargent was mulling over a major work of art in which he could express his love of Romani music, dance, and picturesque costumes. On his return to Paris, he set to work on a wide horizontal picture whose proportions simulated the shallow stage space of popular musical establishments. He named the painting El Jaleo to suggest the name of a dance, the jaleo de jerez, while counting on the broader definition of jaleo, which includes ruckus or hubbub. The painting was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1882 with the more explicit title El Jaleo: Danse des gitanes (Dance of the Gypsies).
The best evidence of his own excited reactions to live dance performances can be found in the pencil sketches of a Spanish woman that he included in an album assembled for Isabella Stewart Gardner. They are among his fastest, most intuitive works. In one drawing, a torrent of fast hard lines suggests the twisting shawl from which a majestic neck and outstretched vamping arms emerge.
This 300 piece puzzle features John Singer Sargent's El Jaleo, displayed prominently in the Spanish Cloister at Fenway. The puzzle comes in a paperboard box featuring Sargent's work, so you can safely store your puzzle.
Puzzle measure 11 x 17 inches
300 pieces
Courtyard Tea
$16.00
Gardens and horticulture flourish at the Gardner Museum, reflecting Isabella Stewart Gardner’s passions. The Museum’s interior Courtyard is an astonishing work of art itself, combining horticultural, sculptural, and architectural elements. This serene blend of naturally caffeine-free flowers and herbs pays homage to that colorful tradition.This tea comes from our collection of loose teas inspired by the Museum and blended by Elmwood Inn Fine Teas.
Ingredients: Chamomile, rooibos, lemon balm, lemon verbena, linden flowers, anise, cinnamon, oat straw, hops, passion flower, and orange peel
NET WT. 3.5 oz (100G)
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Daring by Design
$45.00
An in-depth study of one of Boston’s treasured cultural landmarks, the pioneering patron behind the collection, and the Pritzker Prize–winning architect who modernized the Gardner Museum’s vision.When Isabella Stewart Gardner opened her exquisitely curated collection to the public in 1903, she could hardly have imagined the more than 250,000 visitors that now annually explore the art and furnishings housed in her historic re-creation of a Venetian palace.
Tasked with the first addition to the museum since its founding, Renzo Piano Building Workshop has brought Gardner’s vision into the new millennium. In addition to sumptuous images of the courtyards, gardens, and galleries of the original stone palazzo and rarely seen journal pages and photographs, this beautifully designed volume features architectural renderings and new photographs of the 70,000-square-foot wing.
Essays address Gardner’s life, including her friendships with Henry James, James McNeill Whistler, and John Singer Sargent; the museum’s interaction with Renzo Piano Building Workshop; and the new building within the firm’s distinguished museum work as a whole.
By Anne Hawley, Robert Campbell, and Alexander Wood
160 pages
Published by Skira Rizzoli 2014
Hardcover
9.8 x 1.1 x 11.8 inches
Caravaggio Ornament
$16.95
Many artists represented within Mrs. Gardner's collection were influenced by the works of the Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.This hand-embroidered ornament of the famous Caravaggio shows him with a palate in one hand, and a sword in the other, representative of his tumultuous life.
Ornaments of other subjects and artists featured in the Gardner Museum also available. Complete your collection of Gardner Museum-inspired ornaments with Caravaggio!
© 2023 Gift at the Gardner.
