Ludwig Passini's "Isabella Stewart Gardner"
photographer
Unknown
artistafter
Ludwig Johann Passini
(Vienna, 1832 - 1903, Venice)
subject
Isabella Stewart Gardner
(New York, 1840 - 1924, Boston)
Date1892
Place MadeVenice, Veneto, Italy, Europe
MediumAlbumen print on card
Dimensions16.4 x 10.8 cm (6 7/16 x 4 1/4 in.)
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberARC.008036
eMuseum ID723530
Other NumberP33w89
EmbARK ObjectID33807
TMS Source ID17287
Last Updated8/14/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryIn 1892, Isabella commissioned pastel portraits of herself and her husband Jack from the Viennese artist Ludwig Passini while they were in Venice. Isabella's biographer Morris Carter wrote, "Although she liked the painter, these portraits never gave her pleasure." The location of the portraits is unknown and may have been destroyed by Isabella. She kept this photograph of her portrait in a drawer in a commode in the Vatichino, the small gallery adjacent to the Macknight Room. As in the 1888 John Singer Sargent portrait, she wears her signature pearl and ruby necklace.
BibliographyNotesAlan Chong. "Henry James, Mrs. Gardner and Art" in Rosella Mamoli Zorzi (ed.). Henry James Letters to Isabella (London, 2009), pp. 35-36.
Elizabeth Anne McCauley et al. Gondola Days: Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro Circle. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Venice: Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, 2004), pp. 99-100, fig. 70.
Morris Carter. Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court (Boston, 1925; Reprint, Boston, 1972), p. 130.
Elizabeth Anne McCauley et al. Gondola Days: Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro Circle. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Venice: Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, 2004), pp. 99-100, fig. 70.
Morris Carter. Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court (Boston, 1925; Reprint, Boston, 1972), p. 130.
MarksNotesSigned (lower left corner, on painting in image): Ludwig Passini / Venezia 1892
ProvenanceNotesProbably commissioned by Isabella Stewart Gardner around 1892.
