Letter to Isabella Stewart Gardner from Boston
correspondent
Gretchen Osgood Warren
(Boston, 1871 - 1961, Boston)
Date14 April 1909
Place MadeBoston, Massachusetts, United States, North America
MediumInk on paper
Dimensions18 x 27.3 cm (7 1/16 x 10 3/4 in.)
ClassificationsManuscripts
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberARC.005346
eMuseum ID717967
EmbARK ObjectID26442
TMS Source ID10196
Last Updated8/9/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryFor Isabella’s 69th birthday, her friends poet and actress Gretchen Osgood Warren and founder of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Henry Lee Higginson organized the creation of a book (museum no. U19w40) containing signatures from more than 200 of Isabella's friends to show their appreciation the museum. Gretchen was unable to be in Boston on the day the book was presented, so she wrote this letter.
Transcript:
Dearest Mrs. Gardner:
This is a great disappointment to me to miss this evening. But even were I with you, I should not know how to tell you how we all feel about your little “surprise.” It is full of loving gratitude from us all. Of course you know what I always think of when I think of you—of your having no children & of the sadness which I know lies at the bottom of your heart. But you have the perfect joy of having given to all the hungry people who have gone into Fenway Court, & in the future will go, the nourishment & inspiration of undying beauty & light. There is too much that is ugly & sordid in this world: it does not penetrate your walls. It is pure poetry & the mysterious vision of something only great art can seize & perpetuate, which you have gathered together there in such a living unity.
[Gretchen Warren]
Transcript:
Dearest Mrs. Gardner:
This is a great disappointment to me to miss this evening. But even were I with you, I should not know how to tell you how we all feel about your little “surprise.” It is full of loving gratitude from us all. Of course you know what I always think of when I think of you—of your having no children & of the sadness which I know lies at the bottom of your heart. But you have the perfect joy of having given to all the hungry people who have gone into Fenway Court, & in the future will go, the nourishment & inspiration of undying beauty & light. There is too much that is ugly & sordid in this world: it does not penetrate your walls. It is pure poetry & the mysterious vision of something only great art can seize & perpetuate, which you have gathered together there in such a living unity.
[Gretchen Warren]
BibliographyNotesChristina Nielsen (ed.). Sargent on Location: Gardner's First Artist-in-Residence. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2018), pp. 28, 48 no. 8, p. 58 no. 11.
MarksNotesInscribed in pencil in Morris Carter's hand (upper right corner): April 14, 1909
Gretchen Osgood Warren
early 20th century
Gretchen Osgood Warren
early 20th century
Gretchen Osgood Warren
early 20th century
