Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Gardner Museum viewed from the Fenway
(new wing is not visible at rear) |
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 Location within Boston
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| Former name | Fenway Court |
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| Established | 1903 |
| Location | 25 Evans Way Boston, MA 02115 |
| Coordinates | 42°20′19″N 71°5′56″W / 42.33861°N 71.09889°W |
| Type | Art museum |
| Accreditation | American Alliance of Museums |
| Founder | Isabella Stewart Gardner |
| Director | Peggy Fogelman |
| Public transit access |
Museum of Fine Arts 
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Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
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Gardner Museum in 2012, original building at right
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| Built | 1896–1903 |
| Architect | Willard T. Sears |
| NRHP Reference # | 83000603 |
| Added to NRHP | January 27, 1983 |
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (ISGM) or Fenway Court, as the museum was known during Isabella Stewart Gardner's lifetime, is a museum in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located within walking distance of the Museum of Fine Arts (although the Museum of Fine Arts's Huntington Avenue location was constructed after Fenway Court) and near the Back Bay Fens. The museum houses an art collection of world importance, including significant examples of European, Asian, and American art, from paintings and sculpture to tapestries and decorative arts. In 1990, thirteen of the museum's works were stolen; the high-profile crime remains unsolved and the artwork's location is still unknown.
Today, the museum hosts exhibitions of historic and contemporary art, as well as concerts, lectures, family and community programs, and changing courtyard displays. In accordance with the will of Isabella Stewart Gardner, admittance is discounted to those wearing Boston Red Sox memorabilia, and is free to anyone named Isabella.
The museum was incorporated in 1900 and opened in 1903 by Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924), an American art collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. It is housed in a building designed to emulate a 15th-century Venetian palace, drawing particular inspiration from the Venetian Palazzo Barbaro.
Gardner began collecting seriously after she received a large inheritance from her father in 1891. Her purchase of Vermeer's The Concert at auction in Paris in 1892 was her first major acquisition. In 1894, Bernard Berenson offered his services in helping her acquire a Botticelli. With his help, Gardner became the first American to own a painting by the Renaissance master. Berenson helped acquire nearly 70 works of art for her collection.
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