As she visited Boston亚洲色吧檚 famed , Dr. Natalie Dykstra of the Hope College English faculty couldn亚洲色吧檛 help but wonder about the founder for whom it亚洲色吧檚 named. Who was the person who did something that for a woman in 1903 was almost unthinkable: design, build, fill and endow a museum for the public to enjoy in perpetuity?
Dykstra has spent the last 10 years seeking an answer, continuing after retiring from
Hope in 2020, scouring archives and visiting sites in both the U.S. and Europe that
were important in Gardner亚洲色吧檚 story. Dykstra亚洲色吧檚 quest has culminated in the critically
acclaimed biography 亚洲色吧淐hasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner,亚洲色吧� published
earlier this year 亚洲色吧� a century after Gardner亚洲色吧檚 death in 1924 at age 84 亚洲色吧� by Mariner
Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. The book has been praised by, among others, the
New York Times, which has described it as 亚洲色吧渆xquisitely detailed and perceptive,亚洲色吧� and
the Wall Street Journal, which has called it 亚洲色吧渁 sympathetic, impeccably researched
biography.亚洲色吧�
The museum, Dykstra noted, is something of a three-dimensional memoir, with every detail reflecting Gardner亚洲色吧檚 aesthetic and vision. She collected the art, and on deciding to build the museum was onsite during its construction, giving directions to workers and requiring that features that didn亚洲色吧檛 meet her standards be redone. She designed the rooms and decided herself where the art would go, and in addition to endowing the museum, her will required that her arrangement of the art could never be changed.
亚洲色吧淭he Venetian-style palazzo is filled floor to ceiling with the paintings, tapestries, prints, porcelain, rare books, manuscripts and fine furniture collected by its founder,亚洲色吧� Dykstra said. 亚洲色吧淎 friend of hers at the time said, 亚洲色吧榊ou have her when you have the museum亚洲色吧� 亚洲色吧� it so expresses her: her interests, her passions, her relationships, what mattered to her.亚洲色吧�
However, she said, while the museum embodies Gardner亚洲色吧檚 persona and priorities, the building and its exhibits don亚洲色吧檛 explain what her persona and priorities were and how they came to be. That亚洲色吧檚 the illumination that Dykstra set out to provide, tracking Gardner亚洲色吧檚 84 years from childhood through her final days to reveal not only the events of her life but their interplay.
Born in New York in 1840, Gardner attended school for a time in France. She met her husband, John 亚洲色吧淛ack亚洲色吧� Lowell Gardner, through his sister, and the couple settled in Boston. They hoped to have a family, but endured a stillbirth, the death of their son Jackie at 20 months, a miscarriage and then her doctor亚洲色吧檚 report that she could not have more children.
亚洲色吧淪he was devastated by this loss,亚洲色吧� Dykstra said. 亚洲色吧淎nd then, after a time, she got up and pursued a lot of different things. She traveled with Jack; she started reading Dante; she went to listen to Charles Eliot Norton亚洲色吧檚 lectures on art; she began collecting rare books, which are an important part of her collection; and then she started to collect masterpieces.亚洲色吧�
亚洲色吧淪he collected Italian Renaissance masters, such as Titian, Botticelli and Raphael, when many elite Bostonians were collecting painters from the fashionable French Barbizon School,亚洲色吧� Dykstra said. 亚洲色吧淪he also collected a Vermeer and multiple Rembrandts.亚洲色吧�
Following Jack亚洲色吧檚 death in 1898, the civic-minded Gardner next devoted herself to sharing her collection.
亚洲色吧淪he returned from her many overseas adventures to create a world-class art museum in an effort to push her city and country forward onto a larger cultural stage,亚洲色吧� Dykstra said. 亚洲色吧淪he wanted to provide a way for people without her resources to have an immersive experience with great art akin to what she亚洲色吧檇 had on her travels, aesthetic encounters that had so pleased and transformed her.亚洲色吧�
In New York City, Dykstra visited historic Grace Church, which Gardner attended growing up, and discovered that her parents had donated a stained-glass window in memory of her three siblings, who had predeceased her 亚洲色吧� a familial history of linking art and memory. In the archives of the Massachusetts Historical Society, she found the diary of a friend with whom Gardner had attended boarding school in Paris, and with it details about teachers, social life and Gardner亚洲色吧檚 capacity for 亚洲色吧渏ollification.亚洲色吧� In Venice, Italy, Dykstra visited the same palazzo that had so enthralled Gardner on her travels that she modelled her museum after it. Dykstra read period newspaper accounts of how Gardner dared to scandalize high society 亚洲色吧� like by wearing a Red Sox headband to a Boston Symphony concert.
Dykstra also managed a large cast of often-famous characters who frequently appeared in Gardner亚洲色吧檚 orbit. It亚洲色吧檚 a veritable who亚洲色吧檚 who of the Gilded Age that includes, among others, abolitionist and suffragist Julia Ward Howe; author Henry James; playwright Oscar Wilde; general (and New Jersey governor) George McClellan; U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt; the artists John Singer Sargent and James Whistler; and historian Henry Adams and Adams亚洲色吧� wife, Clover, the latter of whom was the subject of a previous book by Dykstra.
The project made for an active decade, and Dykstra hopes that readers will enjoy the result as much as she enjoyed the process.
亚洲色吧淭here are aspects of your subject亚洲色吧檚 life that you know quite a bit about 亚洲色吧� that亚洲色吧檚 in part why you亚洲色吧檙e drawn to them,亚洲色吧� Dykstra said. 亚洲色吧淏ut then there are always arenas in your life that require you to do a lot of reading and research.亚洲色吧�
亚洲色吧淢y Ph.D. was in American studies, which is multidisciplinary, and this book drew on every skill I could muster,亚洲色吧� she said. 亚洲色吧淭here were so many characters to keep track of, and paintings and titles of paintings, and furniture, porcelain and different kinds of art. But what a pleasure to think about art in such a sustained way. It became really important to me to have the reader be able to picture or imagine Gardner looking at paintings, so I needed to look at the paintings a lot, so that I could understand what that felt like. It was an enormous education and privilege.亚洲色吧�
亚洲色吧淚 also came to admire her,亚洲色吧� Dykstra said. 亚洲色吧淪he had a fiery temper and loved attention, but she was also really good at giving attention. She was an intense personality 亚洲色吧� it must have seemed like high beams were coming at you 亚洲色吧� but she was incredibly disciplined in her work, and emotionally disciplined.亚洲色吧�
亚洲色吧淚 learned a lot from her: 亚洲色吧楬ow do you pick yourself up?亚洲色吧� She had the worst thing happen, losing her children, and yet she was an optimist,亚洲色吧� Dykstra said.
Dykstra was a member of the Hope faculty for 20 years before retiring, and today lives near Boston with her husband. She became interested in Gardner while conducting research in Boston for her book about Clover Adams, 亚洲色吧淐lover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life,亚洲色吧� published in 2012 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. She received external support for 亚洲色吧淐hasing Beauty亚洲色吧� including a 2018 Public Scholar Program Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities and a 2018 Robert and Ina Caro Research/Travel Fellowship from Biographers International Organization. She was assisted in her research by Hope students, not only on campus but in Boston and France, work funded by Mellon Foundation grants and Jack Nyenhuis summer faculty fellowships.
For her work on Clover Adams, she had also received an NEH fellowship, as well as grants from the Schlesinger Library and the Massachusetts Historical Society, where she was elected a Fellow in 2011. 亚洲色吧淐lover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life亚洲色吧� was named a Must-Read book of 2013 in the 13th Annual Massachusetts Book Awards 亚洲色吧� and featured in 亚洲色吧淏ooks 亚洲色吧 Curious Minds, Recommended for the Curious Minded亚洲色吧� in The New York Times.
亚洲色吧淐hasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner亚洲色吧� is available in hardcover, and totals 495 pages including detailed notes and an index. The book retails for $37.50, and copies are available through Holland-area booksellers including the Hope College Bookstore, Reader亚洲色吧檚 World, and Barnes and Noble; and online through Amazon as well as the publisher.