6. Nathaniel Silver

When in Boston, make sure you include a visit to ‘The Gardner’ as it is known locally. Conveniently situated on ‘The Fenway’, close to the MFA and the Back Bay area. It is a remarkable building and an extraordinary collection formed at the dawn of the era when Americans collected European art, and in the process created something entirely personal, new and exciting.

I met with Nathaniel Silver, Associate Director and Chief Curator at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, at Fenway Court, to discuss his own journey through the history of art collecting in America and the UK, and to hear about how Isabella Stewart Gardner formed and lived with her remarkable art collection, in her spectacular Venetian-style palazzo in Boston, Fenway Court. Nat is a co-author of a new biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner.

Andrea d’Angiolo called Andrea del Sarto (1486-1530), Head of St Joseph looking down, sold at Christie’s, London, 5 July 2005, lot 14 for £6,504,000 (including fees)

Mrs Gardner was the first in America to buy a painting by the Florentine Renaissance master, Sandro Botticelli.

Sandro Botticelli (1444 or 1445-1510), The Story of Lucretia, c. 1500 (The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, P16e20). Bought by Mrs Gardner for £3,400 from Bertram, 5th earl of Ashburnham, Ashburnham Place, Sussex through Bermard Berenson, 1894

Photographs of Bernard Berenson (or ‘BB’ as he was known) and Isabella Stewart Gardner.

Rubens:

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Thomas Howard, earl of Arundel, 1629-30. (The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, P21s15). Bought by Mrs Gardner from Colnaghi & Co., London for £21,000 in March 1898, through Bernard Berenson.

Rembrandt:

Dutch Room, showing Rembrandt’s Self Portrait, Aged 23, 1629 (The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, P21n6). Bought by Mrs Gardner for £3,000 from Colnaghi & Co., London, through Bernard Berenson, February 1896.

Soissons cathedral:

Stained glass window from Soissons cathedral, with scenes from the lives of Saints Nicasius and Eutropia, c. 1205 (The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, C28S2)

Titian:

Titian (1488-1576), The Rape of Europa, 1559-1562 (The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, P26e1). Painted in Venice for Philip II of Spain (with five other scenes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and known as the poesie) bought by Mrs Gardner for £20,000 from Colnaghi on the advice of Bernard Berenson, 1896.

The Titian Room, showing Titian’s Rape of Europa (The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum)

After the spectacular opening of Fenway Court in 1903, Charles Eliot Norton, the Harvard art historian and friend of Mrs Gardner, wrote

“Palace and Gallery (there is no other word for it) are such an exhibition of the genius of a woman of wealth as never seen before. The building, of which she is the sole architect, is admirably designed. I know of no private collection in Europe which compares with this in the uniform level of the works it contains.” N. Silver and D. S. Greenwald, Isabella Stewart Gardner - A Life, 2022, p. 106.

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), Mrs Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1888 (The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, P30w1), shown on display in The Gothic Room at Fenway Court.

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), Mrs Fiske Warren and her Daughter Rachel, 1903. Painted in the Gothic Room at Fenway Court, at that time used by Sargent as a studio (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, no. 64.693). This painting was loaned to the exhibition at Tate Britain, Sargent and Fashion, 21 February - 7 July 2024)

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), El Jaleo, 1882 (The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, P7s1). El Jaleo translates approximately as ‘the ruckus’, and named for an Andalusian dance. Gift from T. Jefferson Coolidge (1831-1920), American businessman and diplomatist to Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1914.

Nat referred to three collections he likes to visit - all of which must have served as inspiration for Mrs Gardner’s collections and their display in Boston.

Emilio Cavenaghi, La sala Nera del Museo Poldi Pezzoli, 1872 (private collection), Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan.

John Thompson, West-facing view of the Large Gallery at The Wallace Collection, London, c. 1888 (The Wallace Collection, London)

A view of the 18th century room at The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

Nat’s chosen work is Pesellino’s, Story of David and Goliath, which with its pair, The Triumph of David, was included in the (very beautiful) recent exhibition at the National Gallery (December 2023-March 2024). Both panels may have been painted as decorative panels for the front of (two) marriage cassone. Prior to the exhibition’s opening, the panels were conserved at the National Gallery. The restorer Jill Dunkerton discussed their restoration here on The Art Newspaper’s podcast - (interview starts at 42:08).

Francesco Pesellino (1422-1457), Story of David and Goliath, c. 1450 (National Gallery, London, NG6579)

Francesco Pesellino (1422-1457), The Triumph of David, c. 1450 (National Gallery, London NG6580)

See also The Isabella Stewart Gardner museum on Google Arts and Culture