Otto Rosenheim (Germany, 1871 - 1955)
Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1906
Gelatin silver print , 20.3 x 25.4 cm (8 x 10 in.)
General admission for children 17 years and under is always free
This portrait photograph of Isabella Stewart Gardner shows her from the waist up holding a large unclasped book open in her two splayed hands. She is dressed in a dark woolen coat with just one ribbed cuff visible; underneath she wears a dark dress with a high collar. A dark leather strap decorated with two metallic buttons crosses over her body from her left shoulder. She also wears a small dark hat with a dotted veil pulled tight over her face. Mrs. Gardner is turned a quarter way to her right with her face tilted down, reading the book. Her lips are slightly open and she appears to be studying the text.
Vatichino
Commentary
While she collected and created photographs throughout much of her life, Isabella Stewart Gardner rarely sat for professional photographers. This portrait of Gardner holding a large, unclasped volume in her hands was taken by Dr. Otto Rosenheim, a noted biochemist and amateur photographer, in London in 1906. Several years later, the photographer wrote to Gardner to ask if she might autograph a print for him to send to art historian Bernard Berenson, who was “delighted” with the original image.