🖼⛲️🎨🌺 WHAT ISABELLA WANTED: ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER BUILDS A MUSEUM by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Matthew Cordell 🖼⛲️🎨🌺 is a whimsical picture book about the well-traveled American collector and art world icon, Isabella Stewart Gardner.
🌺 This one was a delight to read with my kids, in part because of my personal connection to Isabella’s palace. Many moons ago I worked in the offices of Isabella’s former homestead, now the Gardner museum, on the tippy-top floor of the early-20th century palace.
⛲️ Izzy G, as some of us affectionately referred to her, was an interesting, strong-willed woman who created a legacy and cultural touchpoint for Bostonians and all who visit her palazzo in the Fens.
🖼 The illustrations are rendered as versions of the very sketches that adorn the Gardner Museum walls — they read as playful drafts of great works, with layers of lines that float over watercolor patterns and texture, another type of media that Isabella strategically collected. A brief blue-toned spread is a solemn interlude that acknowledges the museum’s great stain — the great art heist of The Concert and The Storm. (Today, only the frames of those works remain.)
🌺 Isabella certainly knew exactly what she was after — whether it was her drive to acquire a John Singer Sargent sketch, Flemish tapestry, sculpture of a Greek goddess or avant-garde self-portrait. She sought it out, bought it, and brought it all home. Fleming successfully showcases Isabella’s flare — her powers of curation, design, and procurement. The stuff of art historical dreams!
What Isabella Wanted: Isabella Stewart Gardner Builds a Museum, by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Matthew Cordell, published by Neal Porter Books (2021).
Find this title in your local independent bookshop.
