Inventing Isabella & Rewriting History - Two Tours at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Two tours with Diana Greenwald, Poorvu Curato of the Collection: Throughout history, there have been women who defied expectations, and dared to be different. Join us as we explore how art, fashion, and photography shaped their personas and identities.

Isabella Stewart Gardner used art, fashion, and photography to cultivate her image. Though her name is on the Museum she founded, Isabella remains an enigmatic figure. As someone who often defied the expectations of her gender and class, many stories, scandals, and myths surrounded her during her lifetime and still do today.

Inventing Isabella unites many pictures of Isabella—from formal oil paintings to informal drawings and personal and press photographs—that Isabella chose to preserve. Combined with select examples of her clothing and jewelry, we see how Isabella fashioned herself and entered long and intricate collaborations with artists to craft her public image. In conjunction with Inventing Isabella, the Museum will also showcase the work of two contemporary artists, Fabiola Jean-Louis: Rewriting History and Carla Fernández: Tradition is not Static.