Isabella Stewart Gardner Quotes

The Concert was owned by the French critic Thoré and sold by his heirs in 1892 to the wealthy American collector Isabella Stewart Gardner, whose house became a museum in Boston on her death in 1924. The painting was the most important work lost when 11 pictures were stolen from the museum on 18 March 1990 and it has not yet been recovered. It is thought to be the most valuable unrecovered stolen painting, with a value estimated at over $200,000,000.

Win as though you’re used to it and lose as if you like it. —ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER

poem by her friend Thomas Bailey Aldrich, the longtime editor of the Atlantic Monthly. Its lines read like a brace against failure: “Build as thou will—unspoiled by praise or blame / Build as thou will; and as thy light is given / Then if at last the airy structure fall / Divide & vanish—Take thyself no shame—/ They fail, and they alone, who have not striven.

From the pen of ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER June 10, 1886 Paris, France My dearest Amelia,

Isabella Stewart Gardner was a talked-about woman. Anyone with a tongue for scandal followed her every provocation, from smoking in public to brandishing large hats during Boston Symphony Orchestra performances. They talked about every male she bumped into, and she bumped into many. She wore French fashion, exposing more flesh than Boston puritans were accustomed to. Even noncontroversial acts fanned the flames of story. She did nothing to quell the rumors about her, adding witty one-liners which appeared with exclamation points in newspaper gossip columns. Henry James cast her life in Portrait of a Lady. Paris

Don't spoil a good story by telling the truth.

Don't spoil a good story by telling the truth.

The Concert,” Zeta says. “Painted by Johannes Vermeer around 1660, stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on March 18, 1990, along with twelve other pieces of art. The Concert alone is valued at two hundred million dollars.” My mouth drops open. “The total value of all art stolen that night is about five hundred million. None of the stolen works has been recovered.

The Lioness of Boston, based on the life of Isabella Stewart Gardner.