Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner

Goldfinch, by Rembrandt’s student Carel Fabritius,

she was “a wrinkled old fairy all the same.”

Lowell captured Dante’s appeal to readers—Belle included—with his dictum that the poet was “part of the soul’s resources in time of trouble.”

She cared about fashion because she cared about aesthetics, and fashion was her most immediate access to beauty—she could literally put her hands on it.

“Motu et Lumine.” How apt. The motto from the Venetian fireplace looked simultaneously to her past and her future—and to her aim to live “with motion and light.”

eighteenth-century painter Francesco Guardi, who would influence everyone from Turner to Whistler to Monet with the exquisite atmospheric effects of his skies and reflective waters.

Susan Cornelia Clarke Warren,

Mr. Gardner wrote a reassuring note, stating that he was holding up. He didn’t want them to worry or feel guilt. “I am & have been very well . . . My children & Grandchildren have been so devoted, and their thoughtfulness and affection so persistent, that notwithstanding our sad bereavement & our lasting sorrow, no gloom has been allowe

She was already skilled in casting a spell with her surroundings, creating moods and feelings and experiences. During their visit, Isabella gestured to Sullivan, saying, “Everything here is a remembrance.” The seeing, purchasing, having, arranging, and admiring: all of it was filled with memories of chasing beauty.