Martin Mower (Lynn, Massachusetts, 1870 - 1960, Vancouver)
Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1917
Oil on canvas , 83 x 66 cm (32 11/16 x 26 in.)
This oil painting is a portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner. Mrs. Gardner is turned slightly to our left, reading a large book and wearing a feathered black hat. She wears a black dress that is in sharp contrast to the background panel of pale pink, blue and off white. Her black dress has a high collar and puffy sleeves. She is reading a large pink covered book that she holds in her gloved hands at chest level. She wears a black hat with a black feather standing upward in the back. Her reddish brown hair is visible below her hat. Her face is seen behind a black dotted veil pulled down from her hat. She has pale skin and is gazing intently at the book. There is a reddish brown fur muff hanging at waist level from a thin black strap. The source of light is in front of her, as she casts a shadow onto the background.
Close
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 122. (as 1917, after a photograph taken ten years before)
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 170, 172, ill. (as 1917, after a photograph taken ten years before)
Trevor Fairbrother. The Bostonians: Painters of an Elegant Age, 1870-1930. Exh. cat. (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1986), p. 219.
Object details
Accession number
P17w44
Creators
- Martin Mower (Lynn, Massachusetts, 1870 - 1960, Vancouver) - primary
- Otto Rosenheim (Germany, 1871 - 1955) - artist
- Isabella Stewart Gardner (New York, 1840 - 1924, Boston) - subject
Full title
Isabella Stewart Gardner
Creation Date
1917
Provenance
Gift from the painter Martin Mower (1870-1960) to Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1917.
Marks
Printed label (adherred to the back of the stretcher): Sold by Frost & Adams / No. 37 Cornhill Boston
Dimensions
83 x 66 cm (32 11/16 x 26 in.)
Display Media
Oil on canvas
Web Commentary
Copied from a photograph (P33w35) by the noted biochemist and amateur photographer Otto Rosenheim (1871-1955) possibly taken at the London home of Henry Yates Thompson (1838-1928), collector of illuminated manuscripts and newspaper proprietor in 1906. The photograph was sent from Rosenheim to Isabella Stewart Gardner on 24 February 1910.
Permanent Gallery Location
Short Gallery
Bibliography
Philip Hendy. Catalogue of Exhibited Paintings and Drawings (Boston, 1931), p. 250. (as 1917, after a photograph taken ten years before)Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 122. (as 1917, after a photograph taken ten years before)
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 170, 172, ill. (as 1917, after a photograph taken ten years before)
Trevor Fairbrother. The Bostonians: Painters of an Elegant Age, 1870-1930. Exh. cat. (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1986), p. 219.
Rights and reproductions
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Short Gallery
Commentary
Copied from a photograph (P33w35) by the noted biochemist and amateur photographer Otto Rosenheim (1871-1955) possibly taken at the London home of Henry Yates Thompson (1838-1928), collector of illuminated manuscripts and newspaper proprietor in 1906. The photograph was sent from Rosenheim to Isabella Stewart Gardner on 24 February 1910.