Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (ISGM) is in Boston, Massachusetts, located within walking distance of the Museum of Fine Art, Boston.

The museum displays an art collection of world importance, including significant examples of European, Asian, and American art, from paintings and sculptures to tapestries and decorative arts.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is located in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located within walking distance of the Museum of Fine Arts and near the Back Bay Fens.

Virtual Tour of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

“The Story of Lucretia” by Sandro Botticelli
“The Rape of Europa” by Titian
“The Concert” by Johannes Vermeer (whereabouts unknown since its theft in 1990)
“El Jaleo” by John Singer Sargent
“Madame Gautreau Drinking a Toast” by John Singer Sargent

Highlights of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

“The Story of Lucretia” by Sandro Botticelli

“The Story of Lucretia” by Sandro Botticelli is a tempera and oil painting on wood, painted between 1496 and 1504 during the Italian Renaissance.

The subject of this painting is the legend of Lucretia. She was a noblewoman who was raped by the son of the king of Rome, Sextus Tarquinius.

Lucretia believed that the rape dishonored her and her family. She committed suicide by stabbing herself with a dagger after telling what had occurred to her.

“The Rape of Europa” by Titian

The “Rape of Europa” is a mythological painting of the story of the abduction of Europa by Zeus or Jupiter, the Roman name for the Greek god Zeus.

It was painted by Titian about 1560 – 62. In Greek mythology, Europa (Greek: Εὐρώπη) was the mother of King Minos of Crete, a woman with Phoenician origins, after whom the continent of Europe was named.

The painting depicts the story of her abduction by Zeus, who is in the form of a white bull. This myth was originally a Cretan story, and many of the love-stories concerning Zeus originated from even more ancient myths describing his marriages with goddesses.

“The Concert” by Johannes Vermeer (whereabouts unknown since its theft in 1990)

“The Concert” by Johannes Vermeer depicts a man and two women playing music and singing. The young woman is sitting at a harpsichord.

The man is playing the lute and a woman standing while singing. The harpsichord’s upturned lid is decorated with a landscape. A viola da gamba can be seen lying on the floor.

This masterpiece belongs to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, but was stolen in 1990 and remains missing. It is reputed to be the most valuable unrecovered stolen painting ever, with a value estimated at over $200 million.

El Jaleo by John Singer Sargent

“El Jaleo” by John Singer Sargent is a 12 feet (3.7 m) broad canvas depicting a Spanish Gypsy dancer performing to the accompaniment of musicians.

Sargent’s restrained coloring dramatizes the contrast between the dark background and the shining white skirt of the dancer.

The dress is painted to suggest movement, and the lighting creates shadows on the rear wall that capture the movement of the dancer.

The title of the painting, El Jaleo, refers to both the meaning of jaleo, a ruckus, as well as the specific dance known as jaleo de Jerez.

“Madame Gautreau Drinking a Toast” by John Singer Sargent

“Madame Gautreau Drinking a Toast” by John Singer Sargent was an early oil on panel study by Sargent that eventually resulted in the notorious Madame X painting.

This painting depicts Madame Pierre Gautreau who was born as Virginie Amélie Avegno in New Orleans but grew up from the age of eight in France, where she became a Parisian socialite known for her beauty.

She occasionally posed as a model for notable artists. She is most widely known as the subject of Sargent’s painting Portrait of Madame X, which created a social scandal when shown at the Paris Salon.