The Art of Scandal: Life and Times of Isabella Stewart Gardner - Hardcover

Shand-Tucci, Douglass

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060186437 ISBN 13: 9780060186432

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1997

Synopsis

Physical description; xvi, 351 p., [4] p. of plates : ill. (some col.), ports. ; 25 cm. Notes; Includes bibliographical references (p. 305-340) and index. Subjects; Gardner, Isabella Stewart 1840-1924. Art - Collectors and collecting - United States - Biography. Women art collectors - United States - Biography. Artists - United States - Biography. Women artists - United States - Biography.

About this title

Product Description:

An intriguing portrait of an eccentric and passionate woman who compiled one of the finest art collections in America is set against a backdrop of late nineteenth-century Boston society and examines her personal life, marriage, interest in art, and many accomnplishments.

Synopsis:

Immortalized in print by Henry James and on canvas by John Singer Sargent and a legend in her own lifetime, Isabella Stewart Gardner struck out boldly against Victorian repression to develop her own artistic and intellectual interest. Married to a pillar of Boston Brahmin society, which didn't accept her eccentric lifestyle, Isabella Gardner involved herself with the newly emerging Irish-catholic, Jewish, feminist, gay and African-American communities and become muse and mentor to musicians, painters, writers and scholars such as Henry James, Henry Adams, John Singer Sargent, Lady Gregory, Bernard Berenson, Elsie de Wolfe, Charles Eliot Norton and George Santayana. The climax of her life came after the death of her beloved husband in 1898 when she designed and built a Venetian palazzo in Boston to contain her world-famous art collection, where she lived and entertained lavishly and which stands today as the ultimate triumph of her remarkable life.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0060186437
• ISBN 13: 9780060186432
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 380