Isabella Stewart Gardner was a Dog Person

The Dutch Room is home to some of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s most celebrated paintings, including Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait, Age 23 (1629), and Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel (about 1629–30) by Peter Paul Rubens. Less well known,  but equally deserving of attention, are two small sculptures on a table near the room’s main entrance. The two Chinese tomb figurines from the third century BC each depict animals: a diminutive dog and pig. The pair originally stood near The Concert (1663–66) by Johannes Vermeer.

It is hardly a coincidence that Isabella chose to install such precious images of animals alongside her most prized canvases. She loved art and animals. She owned horses and frequently visited the zoo—one anecdote even describes her taking a toothless lion named Rex for a walk during a particularly eventful visit.* Dogs were, however, her favorite.

Isabella’s will—which strictly governs the installation of the Museum’s collection—even mentions four of her beloved dogs: Kitty Wink, Patty Boy, Foxey, and Rowley (sometimes spelled Roly or Rolly). Isabella’s passion for her pets is the subject of a new book: Isabella Stewart Gardner, Dog Lover.

Isabella probably bred smooth-haired fox terriers at Green Hill, her home in Brookline. We know this from images preserved in her guest books, where litters of puppies appear in the spring and summer starting around 1896. Photographs show the pups playing and romping in the grass and snuggling in Isabella’s arms. She described caring for the adorable newborns in several letters. Writing to her art advisor Bernard Berenson in 1900, she said: “Part of my morning’s work has been to try to induce two 9 days old fox terrier pups to open their eyes again. They did once; and then clapped them to, with a vim that seemed to say that the box they found themselves in was not the ideal they had come to this world to see!”^

Of all Gardner’s smooth-haired fox terriers that appear in snapshots, Kitty Wink was her clear favorite. Kitty, as Isabella called her, was likely one of the first visitors to the Museum. Photographs show the terrier at Fenway Court—the name of the Museum from 1903 to 1924—shortly after the building’s completion.

Kitty Wink was not a solo act. Patty Boy, a larger wire-haired terrier of indeterminate breed, was often her partner in crime. Photographs show the dynamic duo exploring the world, often alongside Isabella, in all seasons.

Rather than travel with Isabella from place to place, collies Foxey and Rowley seem to have lived full-time at the Museum. Surviving photos of the pair show two smiling canines—sometimes alongside a smiling Isabella.

Seeing Isabella with her dogs tells us something about her character. According to the recollections of those who knew her, she was an intelligent and formidable person and could sometimes be intimidating. However, pictures of her with beloved pets show a different side of her personality. She was funny and playful and loved a cute puppy as much as anyone else. Isabella Stewart Gardner was many things—including a dog person.

Return to blog

*Morris Carter, Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1925), p. 144 for ownership of horses; pp. 160–61 for lion.

^Isabella Stewart Gardner to Bernard Berenson, Green Hill, 25 May 1900, Bernard and Mary Berenson Papers, I Tatti Harvard Center for Renaissance Studies, Florence, Italy