Gretchen Osgood Warren (Boston, 1871 - 1961, Boston)
Letter to Isabella Stewart Gardner from 8 Mount Vernon Place, Boston, 14 April 1909
Ink on paper, 18 x 27.3 cm (7 1/16 x 10 3/4 in.)
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Commentary
For Isabella’s 69th birthday, her friends poet and actress Gretchen Osgood Warren and founder of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Henry Lee Higginson organized the creation of a book (museum no. U19w40) containing signatures from more than 200 of Isabella's friends to show their appreciation the museum. Gretchen was unable to be in Boston on the day the book was presented, so she wrote this letter.
Transcript:
Dearest Mrs. Gardner:
This is a great disappointment to me to miss this evening. But even were I with you, I should not know how to tell you how we all feel about your little “surprise.” It is full of loving gratitude from us all. Of course you know what I always think of when I think of you—of your having no children & of the sadness which I know lies at the bottom of your heart. But you have the perfect joy of having given to all the hungry people who have gone into Fenway Court, & in the future will go, the nourishment & inspiration of undying beauty & light. There is too much that is ugly & sordid in this world: it does not penetrate your walls. It is pure poetry & the mysterious vision of something only great art can seize & perpetuate, which you have gathered together there in such a living unity.
[Gretchen Warren]
Transcript:
Dearest Mrs. Gardner:
This is a great disappointment to me to miss this evening. But even were I with you, I should not know how to tell you how we all feel about your little “surprise.” It is full of loving gratitude from us all. Of course you know what I always think of when I think of you—of your having no children & of the sadness which I know lies at the bottom of your heart. But you have the perfect joy of having given to all the hungry people who have gone into Fenway Court, & in the future will go, the nourishment & inspiration of undying beauty & light. There is too much that is ugly & sordid in this world: it does not penetrate your walls. It is pure poetry & the mysterious vision of something only great art can seize & perpetuate, which you have gathered together there in such a living unity.
[Gretchen Warren]