Isabella Tod Stewart
painter
Thomas Sully
(Horncastle, Lincolnshire, 1783 - 1872, Philadelphia)
Date1837
Place MadeEngland, Europe
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions75 x 62 cm (29 1/2 x 24 7/16 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberP17w51
eMuseum ID720647
EmbARK ObjectID10896
TMS Source ID162
Last Updated8/9/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryIsabella Tod Stewart was Isabella Stewart Gardner's paternal grandmother and namesake. This portrait was painted by Thomas Sully--an American artist famous for having painted Queen Victoria. Sully’s canvas shows a graceful woman with fair coloring and wearing an almost translucent bonnet. This painting, probably passed down to the younger Isabella’s father David Stewart and then to her, was a family heirloom and likely treasured by the founder. She displayed it in the Short Gallery opposite her own portrait by Anders Zorn.
BibliographyNotesPhilip Hendy. Catalogue of Exhibited Paintings and Drawings (Boston, 1931), pp. 347-48, ill. (as soon after Sully's first visit to London, 1809)
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 123.
Morris Carter. "Mrs. Gardner & The Treasures of Fenway Court" in Alfred M. Frankfurter (ed.). The Gardner Collection (New York, 1946), pp. 4-5, ill.
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 244-45, ill. (as before May 1837)
Hilliard Goldfarb and Susan Sinclair. Isabella Stewart Gardner: Woman and the Myth. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1994), pp. 2, 33, no. 4. (as 1837)
Diana Seave Greenwald, "The Original Isabella Stewart," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 4 May 2021, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/original-isabella-stewart
Nathaniel Silver and Diana Seave Greenwald. Isabella Stewart Gardner: A Life (Boston, 2022), p.21-22, fig. 5.
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 123.
Morris Carter. "Mrs. Gardner & The Treasures of Fenway Court" in Alfred M. Frankfurter (ed.). The Gardner Collection (New York, 1946), pp. 4-5, ill.
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 244-45, ill. (as before May 1837)
Hilliard Goldfarb and Susan Sinclair. Isabella Stewart Gardner: Woman and the Myth. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1994), pp. 2, 33, no. 4. (as 1837)
Diana Seave Greenwald, "The Original Isabella Stewart," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 4 May 2021, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/original-isabella-stewart
Nathaniel Silver and Diana Seave Greenwald. Isabella Stewart Gardner: A Life (Boston, 2022), p.21-22, fig. 5.
MarksNotesInscribed (on the canvas, verso, in red paint): TS 1837 [the 'TS' joined]
ProvenanceNotesCollection of the Stewart family, New York.
Presumably bequeathed by David Stewart (1810-1891), Isabella Stewart Gardner's father, to Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1891.
Presumably bequeathed by David Stewart (1810-1891), Isabella Stewart Gardner's father, to Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1891.
