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Italian, Venice - Ludwig Passini's "Isabella Stewart Gardner", 1892

Italian, Venice

Ludwig Passini's "Isabella Stewart Gardner", 1892

Albumen print on card , 16.4 x 10.8 cm (6 7/16 x 4 1/4 in.)

Commentary

In 1892, Isabella commissioned pastel portraits of herself and her husband Jack from the Viennese artist Ludwig Passini while they were in Venice. Isabella's biographer Morris Carter wrote, "Although she liked the painter, these portraits never gave her pleasure." The location of the portraits is unknown and may have been destroyed by Isabella. She kept this photograph of her portrait in a drawer in a commode in the Vatichino, the small gallery adjacent to the Macknight Room. As in the 1888 John Singer Sargent portrait, she wears her signature pearl and ruby necklace.