Violet Paget (Château Saint-Leonard, France, 1856 - 1935, Florence)
Letter to Isabella Stewart Gardner from the Hotel Beau Rivage, Venice, 21 September 1897
Ink on paper, 18 x 22 cm (7 1/16 x 8 11/16 in.)
Long Gallery
Commentary
Feminist author Violet Paget published under the pseudonym Vernon Lee and featured prominently in Isabella Stewart Gardner’s social circles in Italy. This letter to Gardner discusses the status of James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s Peacock Room, a dining room originally installed in a wealthy collector’s home in London and now displayed at the Freer Gallery in Washington, DC. Gardner herself briefly considered purchasing the Peacock Room and donating it for installation in the newly built Boston Public Library in Copley Square.