Martin Mower (Lynn, Massachusetts, 1870 - 1960, Vancouver)
Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1917
Oil on canvas, 83 x 66 cm (32 11/16 x 26 in.)
This oil painting is a portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner. Mrs. Gardner is turned slightly to our left, reading a large book and wearing a feathered black hat. She wears a black dress that is in sharp contrast to the background panel of pale pink, blue and off white. Her black dress has a high collar and puffy sleeves. She is reading a large pink covered book that she holds in her gloved hands at chest level. She wears a black hat with a black feather standing upward in the back. Her reddish brown hair is visible below her hat. Her face is seen behind a black dotted veil pulled down from her hat. She has pale skin and is gazing intently at the book. There is a reddish brown fur muff hanging at waist level from a thin black strap. The source of light is in front of her, as she casts a shadow onto the background.
Short Gallery
Commentary
Copied from a photograph (P33w35) by the noted biochemist and amateur photographer Otto Rosenheim (1871-1955) possibly taken at the London home of Henry Yates Thompson (1838-1928), collector of illuminated manuscripts and newspaper proprietor in 1906. The photograph was sent from Rosenheim to Isabella Stewart Gardner on 24 February 1910.