Isabella Stewart Gardner

Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924) was an American art collector and philanthropist who founded a Boston museum to house her collection and reflect her personal vision.

Boston: The capital of Massachusetts and a major cultural and educational center in the northeastern United States. Gardner made Boston her home and built her museum there.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: A Boston museum established by Isabella Stewart Gardner to display art in a distinctive residential setting. It is the institution she founded and endowed.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft: The 1990 theft of thirteen artworks from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The theft brought lasting attention to the collection and its empty frames.
The Rape of Europa (Titian): A mythological painting by Titian, completed around 1560–1562 and now in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Gardner acquired this major Titian painting for her collection.
John Lowell Gardner Jr.: An American businessman and art collector who was Isabella Stewart Gardner’s husband. Their wealth and shared travels helped make her collecting possible.
Art collecting: The selection and acquisition of artworks for personal, institutional, or public collections. Gardner assembled a collection spanning periods, places, and media.
Museum endowment: A fund whose invested assets support a museum, often under restrictions set by its donor. Gardner’s will provided for the museum and limited changes to her arrangement.
The Concert (Vermeer): A painting by Johannes Vermeer, dating to around 1663–1666 and stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990. It is among the museum’s best-known missing works.
Fenway Court: The Venetian-style Boston residence and museum built for Isabella Stewart Gardner’s art collection. Gardner’s home became the setting and original name of her museum.
Renaissance art: Art produced during the European Renaissance, especially from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries. Works from this period form a major part of Gardner’s collection.

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Mary BerensonRelated: Gardner’s collecting brought her into the circle of patrons around the Berensons.