When I was a student at Harvard, I used to spend a lot of time studying in the cloistered garden at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Now is the most beautiful time of the year to visit as it’s filled with flowers for Easter.
Courtyard of the Gardner
I haven’t been back there for a while, but this weekend I snuck out of meetings to catch up on one of my favorite places and check out the new addition by Renzo Piano. The extension is impressive and is much in the style of Piano’s project for the Morgan Library in New York City. There a lot of good information at www.buildingproject.gardnermuseum.org, which chronicles the design and construction of the new wing.
The addition, which serves as a kind of grand foyer to the original 1903 Palazzo, includes a monumental stair of glass.
The extension also houses a concert hall, cafe, and member’s lounge, but there’s no art in the new structure.
The Concert Hall
The glass-and-steel facade creates a crisp modern look that complements, but doesn’t mimic the original building, which is based on the Palazzo Barbaro in Venice.
New facade
Past the addition’s glass breezeway, the original mansion is untouched as specified in Mrs. Gardner’s will. There are empty frames to commemorate the Vermeer, Rembrandts, and other works stolen in the great art theft of 1990. As always the best part is seeing some old friends again.
John Singer Sargent, El Jaleo, 1882
Childe Hassam, A New York Blizzard, 1890
Rembrandt, Self-Portrait, Aged 23, 1629
John Singer Sergent, Portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1888