Isabella Stewart Gardner is a name that will be remembered for a plethora of reasons for, as a woman of many talents and tastes, she built quite a reputation for herself. In art historical terms, she is primarily recognised as a member of the aristocratic, puritanical Boston of the 19th century who became a preeminent art collector who ‘triumphed in the face of fierce competition’ and was one of the first American women to prevail in this unwelcoming, exclusivist atmosphere. At a time when being a serious collector of art and artefacts with the view of a prodigious collection in mind was not typically viewed as a pursuit for women, Isabella made it one of her chief interests and eventually created a unique housing and collection of objects …show more content…
As the wife of the wealthy Bostonian John Lowell Gardner Jr., called Jack, Isabella, also referred to as ‘Belle’ and, later in life, ‘Mrs. Jack,’ as a native of New York, had to adjust considerably to an utterly different lifestyle. New Yorkers like the Stewart family Isabella was born into, with their new money and supposedly coarse manners, were unable to impress the upper-crust society of Boston, the so-called Boston Brahmins, a set described as being ‘insular’ and even ‘claustrophobic’ due to their cliquish behaviour, and their hypercritical attitudes were unparalleled. It is unsurprising, then, that this close-knit group of elite families did not readily accept Isabella, a lowly New Yorker. Since her actions would not have been censured in New York, she was either unconcerned or unaware of the spectacle that she was making of herself within the strict guidelines of conservative Boston standards for women’s behaviour. Her role was meant to be that of wife and mother, her world limited to the home and, as such, she should go about life with the expectation of remaining largely unnoticed in society, leaving any forms of attention to the worthier subject, her husband. It was soon made evident,