Isabella Stewart Gardner (New York, 1840 - 1924, Boston)
Fenway Court During Construction: Crest of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1900
Gelatin silver print
This square gelatin silver photograph was taken at the construction site of Fenway Court. At the center of the photograph, there is a rectangular, vertical stone ornament bearing a crest with a phoenix rising. The stone is supported by the rubble-strewn ground beneath it, the wall of a wooden shed behind it, and the hand of a person to the left of it. The person is only partly visible, with the head and half of the body cut off by the left and upper edges of the photograph. The top of the shed is cut off by the upper edge of the photograph. The reverse of the photograph contains the printed words “VELOX” and the stamped number 34 in blue.
Macknight Room
Commentary
Isabella Stewart Gardner asked her friend, artist Sarah Wyman Whitman to design this distinctive crest bearing a phoenix rising from the ashes, an emblem of immortality, and the phrase C’est Mon Plaisir (It’s My Pleasure), one of Isabella's mottoes. Isabella took this photograph of the sandstone crest before it was installed above the museum’s former entryway on the north side of the building, where it continues to greet visitors today.