A Visit to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

I have made very few visits to museums during these pandemic months.  Partially it's the pandemic and partially it's having a small child.  But my stepmom and stepsister came over to watch the little guy one morning...

...so Mom, Steve, and I were able to sneak out and visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for a members morning (when the museum is open only to museum members and therefore less crowded).  The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is the former home of Isabella Stewart Gardner.  The house is theoretically as she left it.  In addition, they do have an attached museum with hosts rotating exhibits. We were able to see the Titian exhibit during our visit there. 

Between 1551 and 1562, Titian created a series of monumental paintings for King Philip II of Spain. Celebrated as landmarks of western painting, the six poesie — or painted poetries — envision epic stories from classical Antiquity. Titian reimagined these familiar tales and used his modern style of painting to shape the future of western art. For the first time in over four centuries, Isabella Stewart Gardner’s fully restored Rape of Europa is reunited with its five illustrious companions in the exhibition’s finale and its only American venue on an international tour including to the National Gallery, London and the Museo del Prado, Madrid. 

Take a peek:

Afterwards, we wandered into the mansion for a look around.  One of the most wonderful things about the home is that it's built around an enormous atrium with a glass ceiling. So even in the doldrums of winter, there's so much natural light!  The atrium was adorned for Christmas when we went and it can, of course, be viewed from every level of the home.

I have been going to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum since I was a child.  And yet, I still manage to find something I haven't seen every time I visit.  Here's a very small sampling of all the museum has to offer:

For scale in this upcoming set of photos, Mom is 5'4" and Steve is 6'1" -- One of the reasons I try to put people in photos as much as possible is because a scale reference is so vital when viewing things through photos.


The house is amazing. The furniture is fabulous. The artwork is rich, varied, and abundant.  If you're ever in the Boston area, it's worth a visit.  And anyone named Isabella gets in free! 

I hope you enjoyed this peek into the museum.  I have to confess that I have 4 or 5 museum visits from the past few pandemic years that I've meant to share, but just haven't got around to the photo editing and now it feels too late as the exhibits are long gone.  Even this post has been in my drafts folder since December 17.  Ooops!  I guess it means I'll simply have to make some new visits in 2022!

Thanks for stopping by!