Collection Spotlight: Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1888

John Singer Sargent, Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1888, oil on canvas, 190 x 80 cm (74 13/16 x 31 1/2 in.), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA.

Mrs. Gardner sat for Sargent during his visit to Boston in January 1888. 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. 

Shop our collection of gifts inspired by John Singer Sargent's larger-than-life portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner!