Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Boston's Fine Art Gem

Nowhere else in the world is there a museum quite like the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston. The collection, the placement of the pieces, even the building itself were all planned with meticulous care by a single person and have remained true to her vision for over 100 years.

Gardner spent three decades in the late 1800s collecting great works of art - not only paintings, drawings and sculptures, but also furniture, ceramics, fabrics, silver and rare books. Then she spent four years at the turn of the 20^th century supervising every detail of construction of a museum in which to house and display her collection.

On January 1, 1903, Fenway Court, as it was known at the time, welcomed its first visitors. The magnificent building - modeled after 15^th-century Venetian palaces - surrounds a three-story plant-filled courtyard. The setting is unlike any other art gallery or museum anywhere around the globe and every inch of it was expressly determined by Gardner herself for that exact purpose - to allow people to see art in a more intimate setting than a typical museum.

The collection features works by masters such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Botticelli, Manet and Degas. The pieces are set in a way that reflected Gardner's own life and personality. Titian's "Europa," for example, hangs above silk fabric from one of her own gowns.

As if to stress the intimately personal nature of the collection, the museum displays ten portraits of Gardner herself - including paintings by contemporaries John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler.

After Gardner's death in 1924, her will - and the accompanying endowment to permanently operate the museum - stipulated that the collection always be displayed according to her aesthetic vision and intent. As a result, the experience of visiting the museum is largely unchanged from how it was more than a century ago, when it was the center of a thriving art and social community that included Gardner's artist, author, poet and philosopher friends.

In fact, one incident above all others demonstrates how strictly the museum honors Gardner's legacy. In 1990, thieves entered the museum at night. By the time they left almost an hour and a half later, they had made off with 13 paintings worth an estimated $300 million. It was the biggest art theft in history, and the masterpieces were never recovered. To this day, empty frames hang where the paintings - including works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas and Manet - were specifically placed by Mrs. Gardner.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is located at 280 The Fenway in Boston, and is open Tuesdays through Sundays from 11am to 5pm.