Thomas E. Marr (Nova Scotia, 1849 - 1910, Boston)
North Cloister, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1902
Glass plate negative
This horizontal glass plate negative shows a black and white photographic view of the North Cloister of the museum, shortly before it opened. On the left, there is the brick barreled ceiling of the cloister and its stone floor. At the rear of the cloister, in the background, there is a mirror, in front of which are potted plants, a tall lamp, and a statue on a pillar. Bordering the right side of the cloister and bisecting the image is a diagonally receding brick archway with five arches. The middle arch is supported by single marble columns resting on stone lions. The other four arches are each supported by two matching marble columns and have stone benches under them. On the right, next to the archway, is part of the museum’s interior courtyard, filled with plants and flowers of varying sizes. Light streams from the courtyard at the right into the cloister at the left, leaving bright patterns on the cloister floor. The signature T. E. Marr (c) appears at the lower right and the inscription 5390 is at the lower left.
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Commentary
Isabella worked with the Boston photographic firm Thomas E. Marr & Son, comprised of Thomas and his son Arthur, to document the museum's interiors. You can often see in these photographs Isabella's different iterations of the galleries from the museum's opening in 1903 to her death in 1924. In this view, a mirror at the end of the North Cloister conceals the Music Room where Isabella regularly hosted concerts. She reconfigured the Music Room in 1915 to create the Chinese Loggia, Spanish Cloister, Spanish Chapel, and Tapestry Room.