Magnets & Mugs
Adam and Eve Magnet
$6.00
Adam and Eve
Follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder
16th century
oil on panel
It is the moment of temptation. Adam holds one apple to his thigh and with his right hand takes another from Eve. In the distance to the left they reappear in miniature, Adam holding up a garment in shame before the Almighty. Behind them the terrestrial Paradise unfolds itself, the creatures browsing on the banks of its winding river.
2.5 x 3.5 inches
Made in the USA
Isabella Bunker Magnet
$6.00
Isabella Stewart Gardner
1889
Dennis Miller Bunker, 1861-1890
Dennis Miller Bunker painted Isabella in a gown she wore to the Artists' Festival, a costume ball benefiting the Boston Art Students' Association in April of 1889. Isabella sat on the organizing committee for the evening and the Boston Globe reported that all of the patronesses of the event wore Venetian costumes from the time of Paolo Veronese. Bunker also attended the event dressed as a troubadour carrying a lute. A year later Bunker recalled Isabella in her regal attire, writing to her "I often think of you in Venetian state... do you wear your red and gold dress I wonder—or do your hair à la Tintoretto?" Isabella collected 6 other paintings and drawings by Bunker before he died tragically early at the age of 29.
2.5 x 3.5 inches
Made in the USA
Lamentation Over the Dead Christ Magnet
$6.00
Lamentation over the Dead Christabout 1503-1505
Raphael, Italian, 1483-1520
In this painting, Raphael arranged six figures in an easily read composition, each figure varied in action but united in sympathetic attention to the dead Christ. Saint John and the Virgin Mary tenderly support Christ in the center on a slightly elevated grassy mound. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who brought Christ down from the cross, stand behind to frame the group. At the right, Mary Magdalene kneels to kiss Christ's foot. Even in this early work, Raphael imbues his figures with the empathy and sweetness beloved in his later paintings.
2.5 x 3.5 inches
Made in the USA
Saint George Slaying the Dragon Magnet
$6.00
Saint George Slaying the Dragon1470
Carlo Crivelli, Italian (Venice), 1430-1495
Charged with excitement and bristling with spiky forms, Saint George Slaying the Dragon is one of Carlo Crivelli's masterpieces. Although the artist worked for more than thirty years after painting it, he never produced anything quite so full of vigor and imagination. What could be more dramatic than the contrast between the rearing horse, its head distorted with fear, and the tender saint, his eyes fixed on the dragon he is about to slaughter? Crivelli's saint is no robust hero, but a slim boy who must use all his might to wield his heavy sword. The jutting shapes of his armor are echoed in the towers of the hill town in the background. On a cliff just below it, kneels the tiny figure of the princess who was to be the dragon’s next victim.
Few paintings in the Gardner Museum are more self-sufficient. Yet Crivelli’s Saint George originated as part of a large altarpiece. Crivelli made the altarpiece for the parish church of Porta San Giorgio, a village near Fermo on the Adriatic coast. It was commissioned by an Albanian immigrant, Giorgio Salvadori.
3.5 x 2.5 inches
Made in the USA
Saint Michael Archangel Magnet
$6.00
Saint Michael Archangelabout 1470
Pedo Garcia de Benabarre, Spanish, active Catalonia, 1455—1480
The archangel Michael, wearing a suit of studded armor, sits on a throne backed by an elaborate blue and gold brocade. In this painting, Michael simultaneously enacts his two principal roles: weigher of souls on Judgment Day and destroyer of Satan. On the left an angel embraces a soul, while on the right, Satan appears as a fantastic two-faced monster ready to capture another soul. Michael positions his lance over the monster. This painting was originally a side panel of a large altarpiece dedicated to John the Baptist, installed in the church of Sant Joan del Mercat in Lleida, Catalonia.
3.5 x 2.5 inches
Made in the USA
Simone Martini Magnet
$12.95
Virgin and Child with SaintsSimone Martini
about 1320
Gold and tempera on panel
Simone Martini achieved unprecedented fame in his own lifetime. This is his largest surviving work outside of Italy and one of the earliest altarpieces in the museum. Delicate and otherworldly, with its finely tooled gold background, this polyptych (a multi-paneled altarpiece) comes from the Church of the Servites in Orvieto, Italy. Above the Virgin and Child is a victorious and blessing Christ, displaying his wounds; the saints to either side carry identifying attributes. On the pinnacles above the saints, angels hold symbols of the Crucifixion and summon the Last Judgment with their trumpets.
Once again, this acquisition showed that Gardner was ahead of the curve; it was the first Simone Martini to enter a collection in the United States.
Made of acryllic
Virgin & Child Magnet
$6.00
Virgin and Child with an Angel1470-1474
Sandro Botticelli (Florence, 1444 or 1445 - 1510, Florence)
Tempera on panel, 85 x 64.5 cm (33 7/16 x 25 3/8 in.) panel
A vast number of paintings of the Virgin and Child were produced in Florence in the late 1400s to meet a new demand for devotional images on a domestic scale. Early in his career, Botticelli specialized in such works. While this painting possesses much of the calm prettiness expected from these Madonnas, it also contains unexpected elements of allegory. The angel, Virgin, and Christ Child all look down at a bowl of grapes studded with ears of grain. Grapes and wheat produce the wine and bread of the Eucharist, and allude to the blood and body of Christ’s sacrifice. The Virgin carefully selects some of the wheat, to signify that she accepts her child’s fate. The angled arcade adds further mystery: like a set of isolated doorways, the structure encloses the figures while it simultaneously frames the landscape beyond.
In 1899, Isabella Stewart Gardner discovered that the Prince Chigi in Rome was willing to sell his painting by Botticelli, so she cabled Bernard Berenson to ask if it was worth $30,000. He replied emphatically that it was not, but she was not discouraged. A few months later, the price had risen to $70,000 and Berenson was recommending its purchase! The acquisition stirred great controversy because the press believed that the painting had been illegally exported from Italy; the Prince Chigi was fined, but later cleared of impropriety. Popular interest on both sides of the Atlantic became so great that it was decided to exhibit the painting in London at Colnaghi before it was shipped to Boston.
4 x 3 inches
Made in the USA
Woman with a Rose Magnet
$6.00
Woman with a Roseabout 1635-1639
Anthony van Dyck (Antwerp, 1599 - 1641, London) Flemish; Belgian
The sitter crosses her arms in an enigmatic fashion, and holds a rose casually between her fingers; the flower may symbolize the pleasures and pains of love. The delicate silvery tones and the billowing drapery are typical of the elegant portraits Anthony van Dyck made in London between 1635 and 1639. Fashion and art found remarkable rapport in van Dyck's portraits of English women: strings of pearls, colorful silks, and casually worn diaphanous gauzes were favored by both the painter and his aristocratic sitters.
3.5 x 2.5 inches
Made in the USA
Nasturtium Enamel Magnet
$10.00
Cascades of blossoming nasturtium vines make their brief but dramatic appearance above the Courtyard, celebrating the arrival of spring at the Gardner Museum.
The annual Hanging Nasturtiums display continues an annual tradition started by Isabella Stewart Gardner during the week before Easter, marking the valiant return of color to The Fenway.
Measures 2" x 1.5"
Nasturtium Enamel Keychain and Nasturtium Enamel Pin also available.
Gardner Crest Smart Vase Cube
$16.00
This is a small vase for a flower or other small plants. The cube is made from natural wood, and fits with the small vase. A magnet is embedded in the wood cube, so you can put it on any metallic surface, like a fridge door.
A small piece of nature in this small vase will brighten up any space. It can also function perfectly as a diffuser by putting aroma oil and sticks inside the clear tube.
The creative bud vases are etched with the corporate seal of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, designed by Gardner’s friend, prominent Boston artist Sarah de St. Prix Wyman Whitman (1842-1904) in 1900. The motto of the Museum’s seal, ‘C’est mon plaisir’ – ‘It’s my pleasure’ – is stamped on these crowd-favorite vases.
Glass vase with magnetic wood block
Gardner Museum Smart Vase Cube
$16.00
This is a small vase for a flower or other small plants. The cube is made from natural wood, and fits with the small vase. A magnet is embedded in the wood cube, so you can put it on any metallic surface, like a fridge door.
A small piece of nature in this small vase will brighten up any space. It can also function perfectly as a diffuser by putting aroma oil and sticks inside the clear tube.
7 inches tall
Glass vase with magnetic wood block
Isabella Quote Mug: "Picture Habit"
$15.00
This mug—perfect for sipping some of our Courtyard-inspired loose leaf teas—prominently features a quote attributed to Isabella Stewart Gardner: "I suppose the picture-habit (which I seem to have) is as bad as the morphine or whisky one . . . " This quotation imparts the passion and enthusiasm Mrs. Gardner felt when building her Museum and acquiring the art in her collection. We hope that by visiting the Museum, you have acquired a "picture-habit" as well!
11 oz. ceramic mug
Dishwasher and microwave safe
Isabella Quote Mug: "Shan't You and I Have Fun With My Museum?"
$15.00
This mug—perfect for sipping some of our Courtyard-inspired loose leaf teas—prominently features a quote attributed to Isabella Stewart Gardner: "Shan’t you and I have fun with my museum?” This quotation imparts the passion and enthusiasm Mrs. Gardner felt when building her Museum for the enjoyment of the public, forever. We hope that you answer Mrs. Gardner's question with a resounding 'Yes!'
11 oz. ceramic mug
Dishwasher and microwave safe
Medusa Mug
$26.95
Inspired by the Medusa mosaic centerpiece of the Gardner Museum's lush Courtyard comes this collaboration between the Museum and Caskata Artisanal Home, sold exclusively at Gift at the Gardner.
On the inside of this mug is a quote printed in a beautiful flourishing script, commonly attributed to the Museum's founder, Isabella Stewart Gardner: "Don't spoil a good story by telling the truth."
14 oz mug
Made in USA
Dishwasher and microwave safe
Titian Mug with Gift Box
$29.95
This elegant mug features Titian's interpretation of Europa, one of Jupiter's great loves, shortly after she initially meets the god disguised as a beautiful white bull. Written in gold on the mug's inside is an excerpt from a letter written by Isabella Stewart Gardner to her art advisor, Bernard Berenson, after he had secured the masterpiece for her; it reads "When comes Europa? I am feverish about it." The cup's elegant gold handle pays tribute to the painting's beautiful gold frame.
The mug comes ready to gift in a box featuring a full view of Titian's painting, as well as a quote from a letter written by Bernard Berenson after he heard word of Europa's delivery to Mrs. Gardner. The quote reads "At last...the Europa is yours."
Mug measures 3.5 x 5.75 inches (including handle)
Gift box measures 4 x 5.25 inches
Hand-wash only
Do not microwave
Estimated ship date: late-September
Isabella Quote Mug: "Come to Tea"
$15.00
This mug—perfect for sipping some of our Courtyard-inspired loose leaf teas—prominently features a quote attributed to Isabella Stewart Gardner: "I feel that either we will soon become enemies, or also forever, very, very good friends. Come to tea with me this afternoon." This quotation captures the passionate and ambitious spirit of the Founder. The perfect gift for a "very, very good friend."
11 oz. ceramic mug
Dishwasher and microwave safe
Isabella Quote Mug: "Win as Though You Were Used to It"
$15.00
This mug—perfect for sipping some of our Courtyard-inspired loose leaf teas—prominently features a quote attributed to Isabella Stewart Gardner: ""Win as though you were used to, it and lose as if you liked it." This quotation captures Mrs. Gardner's knowledge of her scandalous reputation in 19th century Boston society. Sip your cares away with this mug as though you were used to it and as though you liked it!
11 oz. ceramic mug
Dishwasher and microwave safe
Isabella Quote Mug: "My Garden is Riotous"
$15.00
“My garden is riotous, unholy, deliriously glorious!
I wish you were here.” - Isabella Stewart Gardner in a letter to Bernard Berenson dated June 24, 1898
When Isabella Stewart Gardner agreed to sponsor the career of an aspiring young writer named Bernard Berenson, neither dreamed that together they would build one of the country’s most impressive private collections of fine art. Berenson--or B.B., as he signed off on his letters--became Mrs. Gardner’s chief art adviser and her dear friend, as well as America’s leading expert on Italian Renaissance painting.
In her missive to 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 oz. ceramic mug
Dishwasher and microwave safe
Isabella Quote Mug: "Don't Spoil A Good Story By Telling The Truth"
$15.00
This mug—perfect for sipping some of our Courtyard-inspired loose leaf teas—prominently features a quote attributed to Isabella Stewart Gardner: "Don't spoil a good story by telling the truth.” This quotation captures Mrs. Gardner's knowledge of her scandalous reputation in 19th century Boston society. The perfect gift for the elaborate story teller in your life!
11 oz. ceramic mug
Dishwasher and microwave safe
El Jaleo Magnet
$6.00
El Jaleo1882
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.
2.5 x 3.5 inches
Made in the USA
The Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin Magnet
$6.00
The Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin1430-1434
Fra Angelico, Italian, about 1400-1455
Possessed of great delicacy, this little painting also compels attention through its complexity. In the lower scene, enclosed by a wall, the body of the Virgin lies on a bier draped with sumptuous gold textiles. She is surrounded by Christ's disciples, who miraculously appeared as she lay dying. Four of them prepare to lift the body and carry it to the tomb. In the center of the composition, Christ, too, has appeared to accept the Virgin's soul, represented by the infant he holds in his arms. Angels fill the scene to bare witness to this striking moment.
3.5 x 2.5 inches
Made in the USA
Medusa Mosaic Magnet
$6.00
In 1892 an ancient villa was discovered just north of Rome, near the villa of Augustus’s wife Livia. Several well-preserved mosaic floors adorned the baths of the villa. Jack and Isabella Gardner inspected the mosaics in 1895 and purchased this floor in 1897. The delicate tracery of this mosaic resembles those made in Pompei around 25 AD (the late second or third style), but brick stamps indicate that it was laid a century later, during the reign of Emperor Hadrian.2.5 x 2.5 inches
Made in the USA
Gothic Room Isabella Magnet
$8.00
Isabella Stewart Gardner1888
John Singer Sargent (Florence, 1856 - 1925, London)
Oil on canvas
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.
Measures 5.5 inches by 2.5 inches
Made in the USA
Nasturtium Display Magnet
$12.95
Take home a piece of Isabella's Courtyard with this acrylic 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
7 x 2 inches
Made in the USA
Madame Gautreau Magnet
$6.00
Madame Gautreau Making a ToastJohn Singer Sargent
1882-1883
Oil on pannel
Madame Pierre Gautreau, born Virginie Avegno (1859–1915), was Madame X, the statuesque sitter in Sargent’s most notorious portrait (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Critics considered the portrait in scandalously bad taste, and the sitter’s mother asked Sargent to withdraw the painting from the Salon of 1884, which he refused to do. This much smaller and more intimate painting was done a year earlier, and was given by Sargent to Madame Gautreau’s mother. By purchasing this painting at the end of her life, Mrs. Gardner acquired an important document of Sargent’s career, and also a slice of her own history, since she had wanted her portrait by Sargent to rival the sensuous impact of the infamous Madame X.
2.5 x 3.5 inches
Made in the USA
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
In the Dressing Room Magnet
$6.00
In the Dressing Room
Louis Kronberg
1910
Pastel on canvas
Kronberg was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1872. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, at the Art Students' League and at Julian's in Paris. Kronberg was keenly interested in the stage and painted many prominent theater people. Late in her life, Kronberg became Mrs. Gardner's friend and assisted her in several of her last purchases.
2.5 x 2.5 inches
Made in the USA
Self-Portrait, Aged 23 Magnet
$6.00
Self-Portrait, Aged 231629
Rembrandt, Dutch, 1606-1669
Rembrandt’s self-portraits, made throughout his long career, served many different purposes, and in these explorations of his own face and personality remain elusive in many ways. This is one of his first painted self-portraits, and unlike most of the earlier ones, it is not a study of expression or emotion. Indeed, the face, though beautifully lit with evocative shadows, is almost expressionless. The painting is all about costume: the plumed cap, silk scarf, and jacket suggest that this might be an elegant sitter, perhaps even an historic personage. The painting is large and carefully finished, almost as though it were a demonstration piece. In 1629, Rembrandt had not yet received any portrait commissions, so this work might have been done to show off his talents.
On the other hand, by 1629, the twenty-three-year-old artist had already begun to attract critical attention. Self-portraits were a desirable collectible for sophisticated connoisseurs, especially since Rembrandt here wears a golden chain, which indicates the status or nobility of the painter’s profession, although he had not received any such decoration.
3.5 x 2.5 inches
Made in the USA
Isabella Stewart Gardner in Venice Magnet
$6.00
Isabella Stewart Gardner in Venice1894
Anders Zorn, Swedish, 1860-1920
While visiting the Gardners in Boston in February 1894, Anders Zorn made an etching of Mrs. Gardner, which neither of them considered to be a complete success. Later that year Zorn and his wife visited the Gardners in Venice, staying for several weeks as their guests in the Palazzo Barbaro. He attempted again to make a portrait of Mrs. Gardner, but continued to struggle with the task. One evening, Mrs. Gardner stepped out into the balcony to see what was happening outside, and as she came back into the drawing-room, pushing the French windows open, Zorn exclaimed (according to Morris Carter): “Stay just as you are! That is the way I want to paint you.” He went instantly for his materials, and then and there the portrait was begun.
3.5 x 2.5 inches
Made in the USA
The Concert Magnet
$6.00
The Concert
about 1665
Johannes Vermeer, Dutch, 1632-1675
In a pristine domestic parlor, two women and a man concentrate on making music. The standing woman holds a sheet of music and raises her hand to beat time for her companions. Turned enigmatically away from our gaze, the seated gentleman wears an elaborate decorated sash that indicates his membership in a civic militia. Some scholars have been tempted to interpret Dutch musical scenes like this as moral warnings against seduction and illicit sex. Indeed, hanging on the wall at the right is a painting of a procuress by Dirck van Baburen. Although the subject of this painting-within-a-painting seems to suggest that something improper is taking place, the Procuress was in fact owned by Vermeer's family. Moreover, the figures in the room are intently preoccupied with their music: they do not look at each other, and seem unaware they are being observed. Their intensity does not invite interruption. Lying on the large table at left is a lute, while a viola da gamba lies on the floor. Are these instruments soon to be taken up by the trio, or are others to join the group?
Vermeer crafts rather deliberately a sense of mystery: this study in social interaction is a comedy of manners open to our interpretation. The mystery is intensified by Vermeer's famed attention to the reflections of light. It sparkles off the women's pearls (Mrs. Gardner's favorite), the gold threads of the man's sash, the white silk skirt, and even the Persian carpet heaped on the table.
2.5 x 2.5 inches
Made in the USA
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