Contemporary Art

Through exhibitions, Public Programs, and the Artists-in-Residence program, the Museum continues to champion contemporary art, fostering a vital legacy of Isabella Stewart Gardner, who supported the leading visual artists of her own time. She commissioned new work from contemporary artists—like John Singer Sargent, who painted her famous portrait—and purchased their paintings, watercolors, drawings, and sculptures from galleries, other collectors, and directly from the artists themselves—like Whistler’s Nocturne, Blue and Silver: Battersea Reach. Today, artists continue to work in and with the Museum, producing new work featured in seasonal exhibitions and for our outdoor commission space, the Anne H. Fitzpatrick Façade.