The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum opened to the public 100 years ago, but the story of its creation begins much earlier. Many of Isabella Stewart Gardner's interests played a critical role in the conception of her museum: travel, music, literature, religion, gardening, and perhaps most of all, her friendships with artists, writers, and thinkers.

These activities represent Mrs. Gardner's process of self-education. Her collection of both experiences and art objects manifests itself today in the museum she created. Mrs. Gardner saw Fenway Court (as she called the museum) as a place for the "education and enjoyment of the public forever." This exhibition charts that vision.

Travel as Inspiration

Isabella Stewart Gardner loved travel, and, like many upper-class Americans, spent much of her time away from home. She carefully documented over twenty years of travel through Europe, Asia, and the United States. In 28 scrapbooks she compiled images and recollections of these experiences. Filled with photographs, with ephemera from hotels and restaurants, with ticket stubs and pressed flowers, and even with her own sketches, these books are themselves works of art, and they reveal much about her attitudes. Her photographs of important works of art can be considered a wish-list for a future museum. She may not yet have consciously decided on making a museum, but the urge to collect and arrange was already strong. Her trips brought her into contact with exotic cultures and, most importantly, with the past. The museum's architecture and whimsical arrangement reflect these experiences.

Collecting Friends and Art

Like other women of her class, Isabella Stewart Gardner had bought small works of art to decorate her house. In the 1880s, she established close friendships with James McNeill Whistler, John Singer Sargent, and other painters, and collected their works.

A turning point arrived in 1891 when the death of her father left Mrs. Gardner with an inheritance of $2.1 million. She and her husband decided that she would spend this money as she liked on art. Without any expert advice, she made an astonishing start on this new passion by buying one of the rare paintings by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. However, she soon realized that she needed help with the European art market, and turned to a few friends for help. In particular, she relied on the advice of the young Bernard Berenson.

The relationship between Berenson and Gardner was complex. When he began to advise her in 1894, Berenson had almost no experience as a connoisseur or advisor; Mrs. Gardner was therefore instrumental in building his reputation. She decided what kinds of paintings to buy, and Berenson in turn found extraordinary paintings. She usually took his advice, but occasionally rejected paintings not to her liking, and sometimes asked him to pursue specific items.

In addition to Bernard Berenson, Mrs. Gardner had help in building her collection from several other of her young male friends. Denis Miller Bunker, Ralph Curtis, Richard Norton, John Singer Sargent, Joseph Lindon Smith, Denman Ross, and Dodge Macknight helped her most often. These artists and scholars were on the lookout for potential purchases on their travels abroad. They found art objects for Isabella, and she sometimes helped them by buying their works.

By 1896 her success in buying significant paintings by Titian, Botticelli, and Rembrandt brought the realization that she was building a world-class collection. Thereafter, she focused her attention on developing a museum for the Boston public. But it would be a museum like no other.

Life in the Museum

Mrs. Gardner's work did not end with the opening of the museum. She ensured that musicians, dancers, and artists filled her galleries and enriched the atmosphere of Fenway Court. In 1903, John Singer Sargent set up a studio in the museum, and a constant series of concerts showcased celebrity performers as well as young composers. The soprano Nellie Melba sang at the Gardner Museum, and the innovative modern dancer Ruth St. Denis gave a charity performance. Mrs. Gardner cultivated a lively salon of stimulating thinkers and writers.

Gardner also ensured that her museum would be professionally organized. She had her collection and galleries photographed, and initiated cataloguing projects. She selected the first director, and most importantly ensured that the museum would have an endowment for its future. At the time of her death, she left the museum more than $3 million.

Design and Construction of the Museum

In 1896, Mrs. Gardner hired the architect Willard T. Sears (1837-1920) to draw up plans for a museum. She first wanted to rebuild her home on Beacon Street as a gallery. However, the need for more space led her to buy a new plot of land along the Muddy River in the Back Bay fens, which provided about twice the area of her house, along with plenty of light and air.

Willard Sears, together with his partner Charles Cummings, designed many buildings in Boston and New England, including the Cyclorama (1884), now the Boston Center for the Arts in the South End, and the New Old South Church (1875) in Copley Square.

Sears designed Fenway Court using many suggestions from Isabella. He worked for her again in 1914-15, when she restructured the east side of the building, tearing down the Music Room, and creating the Spanish Cloister and the Tapestry Room. Sears also was responsible for the Carriage House in back of the museum in 1907.

In September 1896, Sears wrote: Met Mrs. John L. Gardner on the train going to Ruth Simpkin's wedding and she asked me to see if there were any restrictions on her Beacon Street house lots, and asked me to make plans for her showing a Museum with living apartments over. She wanted me to keep the matter from everybody.

In December 1898: Called on Mrs. J. L. Gardner at 2 p.m. with the drawings for the Museum at 152 Beacon Street, and she informed me that she had purchased a lot of land 100 ft. by 150 ft. on the Back Bay Park to build the Museum upon - That she wanted me to make new drawings, & to include a small theatre with the Museum.