John Singer Sargent - Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1888

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This vertical oil painting is an almost life-sized, full length portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner. Isabella stands facing us and has light skin. Her shoulders are squared, her arms are extended downward, and her hands are clasped together with her fingers interlaced in front of her hips. The outline of her shoulders, arms, and hands form an oval. Isabella looks directly at us, and her mouth is slightly open.  Her auburn hair is drawn back behind her ears, her eyes are blue, and her cheeks are tinted pink.  Her long, black gown is close-fitting, accentuating her slim, hourglass figure. The gown has a plunging V neckline and short sleeves.  Around Isabella’s neck is a white pearl choker necklace from which a large ruby dangles, with a small pearl underneath. Around her waist hangs a double strand of pearls, with a ruby dangling from the middle of each strand and another pearl hanging from the ruby on the lower strand. A ruby also tops each of her light-colored shoes, which peek out from the bottom of her gown. Isabella stands on a reddish-brown floor and in front of a red and gold background that resembles a textile with an elaborate circular and swirling design. The golden design encircling her head suggests a halo with a crown-like flourish. The painting has a simple, gilded wood frame.  

John Singer Sargent (Florence, 1856 - 1925, London)

Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1888

Oil on canvas, 190 x 80 cm (74 13/16 x 31 1/2 in.)

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Commentary

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.