: Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro
Circle
"Gondola Days: Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro
Circle" will be exhibited April 21-August 15 at the Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum.
The Palazzo Barbaro, that double-wide palace near the Accademia
Bridge on the Grand Canal in Venice, is the inspiration for the
final exhibition of the Centennial Celebration at the museum.
In the late Nineteenth Century, Boston art patron Isabella
Stewart Gardner was part of a remarkable circle of European and
American artists, writers, patrons and musicians who gathered at
the Barbaro to draw inspiration from each other, as well as to
partake of the cultural riches of Venice. In a special
international loan exhibition celebrating Venetian expatriate
activities, the Gardner Museum explores the vibrant artistic and
intellectual life at the Palazzo Barbaro and its influence on
contemporary art, literature, architecture and design at the
turn-of-the-century.
The Palazzo Barbaro epitomized the city's salon culture and was
frequented by American and European artists and writers,
including John Singer Sargent, James McNeill Whistler, Henry
James, Anders Zorn, Robert Browning and Claude Monet.
Sargent painted in a studio on the premises and immortalized the
expatriate Bostonian owners - Daniel and Ariana Curtis - in his
painting "A Venetian Interior"; James stayed there and used the
Barbaro as a setting for his novel The Wings of the Dove;
Browning delighted guests with his poetry readings; Monet painted
views across the Grand Canal from the gondola landing of the
Barbaro.
The Palazzo Barbaro was a dramatic influence on Gardner: she and
her husband Jack rented the palazzo on their frequent visits to
the city, and motifs from the Barbaro were an inspiration, one
hundred years ago, for the creation of her own museum - Boston's
only Venetian palace - known as "Fenway Court."
The exhibition brings together an important collection of
paintings, watercolors, pastels, prints and drawings by the
circle of artists who frequented the Barbaro, as well as
scrapbooks, photographs, letters and other ephemera by visitors
and guests. It invites visitors to the museum's fourth floor, a
space built as Gardner's private residence, where she lived for
over 20 years, which preserves aspects of Gardner's apartment,
including works of art and original architectural detailing. Now
museum offices transformed into temporary galleries, the fourth
floor has never before been open to the public.
Evening lectures and a special exhibition concert, as well as
ongoing daytime talks, are presented in conjunction with "Gondola
Days." An illustrated catalog printed in English and Italian
editions will be available. Timed tickets and an additional
admission fee apply. General admission is $13.
The museum is at 280 The Fenway. For information,
www.gardnermuseum.org or 617-278-5107.
