Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Modeled after a Venetian palazzo, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston houses one of the world's most remarkable collections.
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Thank you to Samela St. Pierre (3eyed.tiger on Instagram) for sharing this beautiful sketch from a recent visit! 😍 What ...
06/02/2026

Thank you to Samela St. Pierre (3eyed.tiger on Instagram) for sharing this beautiful sketch from a recent visit! 😍

What has the Gardner Museum inspired you to create? 💮 Send us your art and photos for a chance to be featured!

"Curse the man who invented greens!" That is what painter Dodge Macknight wrote to Isabella Stewart Gardner in 1908 whil...
06/01/2026

"Curse the man who invented greens!"

That is what painter Dodge Macknight wrote to Isabella Stewart Gardner in 1908 while struggling to capture the shifting colors of Northern Mexico.

Look closely at his watercolor, "The Road to Córdoba." Instead of a flat green, Macknight layered vibrant washes of orange, red, violet, and blue to build the vegetation.

What do you think? Did Dodge Macknight get his colors right in the end?

🖼️: Dodge MacKnight (American, 1860–1950), The Road to Córdoba, 1907. Watercolor on paper.

Why are there two matching 16th-century Turkish tiles in New England, 5,000 miles from home?On a window ledge in our Spa...
05/29/2026

Why are there two matching 16th-century Turkish tiles in New England, 5,000 miles from home?

On a window ledge in our Spanish Cloister sits an İznik tile painted with a lush, winding vine of tulips, carnations, and hyacinths. Remarkably, an identical tile lives just 50 miles away at the Providence Art Club.

We don't know who designed them, but we know their placement was intentional. Isabella Stewart Gardner deliberately sat her fragment right between the Italianate Courtyard and the Spanish Cloister, forcing a global visual conversation between Islamic, Italian, and Hispanic art.

Look closely on your next visit to help us ponder this bi-continental mystery.

Look closely at the opening of this tent—can you spot the faint pencil lines beneath the paint?John Singer Sargent often...
05/28/2026

Look closely at the opening of this tent—can you spot the faint pencil lines beneath the paint?

John Singer Sargent often mapped out his compositions in pencil before bringing them to life with watercolor. While he used sketches to guide his layout, he rarely marked light or shadow, leaving that entirely to the mastery of his brush. This spontaneous blending of color gives his work their fresh, luminous beauty.

Where else in this image do you see traces of Sargent's underlying sketch?

🖼️: John Singer Sargent - A Tent in the Rockies, 1916

A relic of the prehistoric forest catches the light of Isabella’s Courtyard garden. 🌿The quartet of tree ferns anchoring...
05/27/2026

A relic of the prehistoric forest catches the light of Isabella’s Courtyard garden. 🌿

The quartet of tree ferns anchoring the corners of the mosaic are among the few plants resilient enough to withstand the filtered light of the atrium year round.

Discover their long and unexpected history: go.gardnermuseum.org/4tY1try

Celebrate your graduate with the gift of endless inspiration.Gift them an Under 30 membership to the Gardner Museum for ...
05/27/2026

Celebrate your graduate with the gift of endless inspiration.

Gift them an Under 30 membership to the Gardner Museum for just $50 a year. They’ll get free, year-round access to the iconic Courtyard, incredible art collection, and exclusive evening programming.

Give the gift of creative escape 🔗go.gardnermuseum.org/4uzbY5G

The first American pilot killed in WWI is memorialized in the Gardner Museum. Poet John Jay Chapman gifted this portrait...
05/25/2026

The first American pilot killed in WWI is memorialized in the Gardner Museum.

Poet John Jay Chapman gifted this portrait of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary to Isabella in memory of his son Victor, who held that tragic distinction. And when Isabella first installed the painting, she placed a wreath with Victor’s name around it.

Look for this special tribute in the Early Italian Room on your next visit.

🖼️: Ambrogio Lorenzetti (Italian, 1285 - about 1348). Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, 1319-1347.

"Beautiful! Beautiful! Best thing I ever did!” That’s how Swedish artist Anders Zorn described this painting, to Isabell...
05/21/2026

"Beautiful! Beautiful! Best thing I ever did!”

That’s how Swedish artist Anders Zorn described this painting, to Isabella Stewart Gardner in 1896.

Painted outdoors on a small island in the Stockholm archipelago, this work is part of a larger series exploring the motif of a mother bringing her child into the water.

Zorn’s sensually frank nudes were less popular in the United States, and at some point after arriving in Boston, the mother’s p***c area was retouched to make the scene more modest. That retouching has since been removed.

You can find this tender scene by the window in the Veronese room.

🖼️ Image: Anders Zorn, Morning Toilet (detail), 1888. Oil on canvas.

🤔 : Can you guess what plant this pressed leaf comes from? Here's a hint: A symbol of hope, strength, resilience, and e...
05/20/2026

🤔 : Can you guess what plant this pressed leaf comes from?

Here's a hint: A symbol of hope, strength, resilience, and endurance, this is one of the oldest living tree species in the world.

🌱If you know what it is, comment below!

"A museum for the education and enjoyment of the public forever" — Isabella Stewart Gardner Happy 🖼️💕
05/18/2026

"A museum for the education and enjoyment of the public forever" — Isabella Stewart Gardner

Happy 🖼️💕

Address

25 Evans Way
Boston, MA
02115

Opening Hours

Monday 11am - 5pm
Wednesday 11am - 5pm
Thursday 11am - 9pm
Friday 11am - 5pm
Saturday 11am - 5pm
Sunday 11am - 5pm

Telephone

(617) 566-1401

Website

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