(c) 2017 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

F. Marion Crawford

photographer Unknown

subject F. Marion Crawford (Bagni di Lucca, Italy, 1854 - 1909, Sorrento, Italy)

Dateabout 1882

MediumAlbumen print on card

Dimensions23 x 17.9 cm (9 1/16 x 7 1/16 in.)

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Accession numberARC.006479

eMuseum ID721355

EmbARK ObjectID32325

Other NumberU3s387

TMS Source ID15894

Last Updated8/14/24

Status

Not on view

Web CommentaryIsabella Stewart Gardner and the novelist F. Marion Crawford bonded over a love of the Italian poet Dante. Their close relationship inspired rumors of an affair. It is impossible to know whether or not the two had a physical affair, but the surviving traces of their mutual admiration have romantic undertones. This photograph is just one of the many letters, books, and manuscripts Isabella displayed in the Crawford/Chapman Case.

BibliographyNotesDiana Seave Greenwald, "Did They or Didn't They? F. Marion Crawford and Isabella Stewart Gardner," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 5 March 2024, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/f-marion-crawford-and-isabella-stewart-gardner

MarksNotesInscribed in ink (verso): May 1882

ProvenanceNotesProbably a gift from author F. Marion Crawford (1854-1909) to Isabella Stewart Gardner in 1882.