Hello world!
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!
PRODUCT
Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner
Sale!
Product Description:
Price:
Original price was: $37.50.$18.99Current price is: $18.99.
Detailed description:
The vivid and masterful story of Isabella Stewart Gardner—creator of one of America’s most stunning museums—an American original whose own life was remade by art. Includes archival photos of Isabella’s world, museum, and the art she collected.
Isabella Stewart Gardner’s museum, with its plain exterior enfolding an astonishing four-story Italian palazzo, rose from Boston’s Fens at the turn of the twentieth century. Its treasures encompassed not only masterwork paintings but tapestries, rare books, prints, porcelains, and fine furniture.
An extraordinary achievement of storytelling and scholarship, Chasing Beauty illuminates the fascinating ways the museum and its holdings can be seen as a kind of memoir, dazzling and haunting, created with objects instead of words and displayed per Isabella’s wishes in the exact placements she initially curated.
Born in 1840 to a privileged New York family, Isabella Stewart married Boston Brahmin Jack Gardner as she turned twenty. She was misunderstood by Boston’s insular society and suffered the death of her only child, a beloved boy, not yet two years old.
But in time came friendships, glittering and bohemian; awe-inspiring world travels; and collecting beautiful things with a keen eye and competitive pace—all these were balm for loss. Henry James and John Singer Sargent—whose portrait of Isabella was a masterpiece and a scandal—came to recognize her originality. Bernard Berenson, leading connoisseur of the Italian Renaissance, was her art dealer.
From award-winning author Natalie Dykstra, Chasing Beauty is the story of the complex and singular woman behind one of the most fascinating museums in the nation and the world—a tale of beauty and loss, grit and American self-invention.
Read more
Product group:
Categories: Women Writers
Product name:
Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner
Price:
Original price was: $37.50.$18.99Current price is: $18.99.
BRUCE CHISHOLM –
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learning more about this lady and her creation of the museum – recommended
Richard Jay Jr –
Currently writing a play with music with Isabella as one of the main characters. For me, capturing the emotions and personality interactions with others as well as the character’s psychological traits is crucial. However, Natalie Dykstra’s novel is incredibly entertaining as well as great reading for everyone who enjoys reading period pieces.
Annie –
I don’t usually write a review of a book that I have not finished reading but Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner is different. The research the author did for the book is very impressive. The print size seems smaller than usual to me, which makes reading somewhat difficult. The paper the book is printed on feels cheap. The historical narrative is somewhat difficult to follow in places and jumps around with the presentation of additional facts that seem unrelated to the stories progression. It needs editing. As much as I love the Isabella Stewart Granger story I don’t think I have the patience to continue reading this book. The author is to be admired for her hard work and research and that is why I gave the book 4 Stars. I feel that the book itself is a 3 Star item.
Marianne E. Brown Esq. –
I have been waiting for someone to write a definitive, authoritative and scholarly book about Isabella Stuart Gardner and I finally have it. Since it so rarely happens, I can only assume that it is very difficult to write a biography that is both beautifully written and full of revelation and insight. Natalie Dykstra has done it. This book is a treasure. The “read” is effortless and enjoyable, the content is riveting and the scholarship impeccable. There is so much here that I didn’t know! I had no idea of Isabella’s involvement in the Black community in Boston, and her volunteer work at a Boston hospital. I had no idea that she had a spiritual director and a deep faith life. On and on. I have read enough fluff in my life; this is one Amazon purchase I will hold onto.
Judy Gunnery –
A real Gilded Age tale about the founding of a wonderful museum, and the strong willed woman who but together a massive art colection.
Amazon Customer –
The author did an amazingly thorough job of research, using Isabella Gardner’s letters, journals and travel albums. Occasionally there is too much detail, as with family trees of people in her circle,, but that does not interfere with the complete pleasure in getting to know this remarkable, strong woman as she literally pursued beauty with unflagging passion. Her hundreds of art treasures are housed in her dream: the Venetian palazzo in Boston that bears her name.
Michael J. Bernaski –
A unique life succinctlly summarized by an author who attempted to embody the persona she was writing about. As with any book written by an admirer, one who struggles to allow the past to live within the past, the authors values overlay the interpretation of a life. A perfect read on the beach. But a forgettable book about an unforgettable woman.
Mishmom –
People seem to know more about the spectacular art theft years ago from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Art Museum in Boston than they do about the woman who built the museum and selected each picture on the wall. This meticulously researched and elegantly written book aims to right that wrong. Isabella Stewart Gardner was a fascinating, occasionally overbearing woman who, during America’s Gilded Age, led a highly privileged yet unusual life. Partnered by an understanding and conveniently wealthy husband, she traveled the world in search of “beauty”, and you see the results and every floor of the museum. (Happily for them both, Isabel had money of her own to spend on the project as well. ) Self-taught, she developed a connoisseur ‘s appreciation for Renaissance painting, beautiful textiles, Roman sarcophagi, and the art and culture of Japan, the Middle East, and of course, Europe. As they say, she had “the eye.” Her acquisitions on her travels included a spectacular Titan painting, a luminous Vermeer, the first Raphael to be sold to an American collector, and seminal works from up-and-coming American artists such as John Singer Sargent and James Whistler, all of which formed the nucleus of her collection. Natalie Dykstra has done a wonderful job giving the reader a sense of this intriguing woman who was in New York and Boston society, but never quite belonged. She meticulously tracks the Gardners’ travel through Europe, the Middle East and Asia, where they collected both art and interesting people. Isabella’s meeting with a noted Spanish dancer is particularly amusing. Dykestra’s discussions of Isabella’s complex and erratic relationships with noted art historian and go-between Bernard Berenson and the author, Henry James are particularly revealing, as is her assessment of how Isabella came to structure and curate the collection in the Italianate villa she built after her husband’s death in the Boston fens which became the museum. Deeply researched yet accessible, this biography reads like a novel and is frankly enthralling. Pick it up if you have any interest in women’s lives, art, the Gilded Age or how far a single-minded vision could get you in the America of the early 20th century. Great book!
Matt –
Isabella Stewart Gardner is one of the most prominent women in modern history. She has been studied, discussed, and written about before—but not like this.
Dykstra has seemingly done the impossible. She has taken a vivid and controversial figure from our past, and brought her to life again with even more splendor than the incredible legacy she left behind.
To say that this book was heavily researched would be an understatement. An endless trove of source materials was sifted through to deliver us this true story. No stone was left unturned. This a biography, to be sure, yet it lacks no emotion. On the contrary, Dykstra draws the reader into Gardner’s world—forming an intimate connection with the subject. I felt able to experience “Belle’s” emotions.
It is so fun getting lost in the pages. The history, culture, and art were incredible on their own, but the real punch for me was the deeper story beneath it all. The relationships, the human connection, a proud matron’s dealing with death. These, were my favorite features in the book. The writing was spectacular too.