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(c) 2020 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Isabella Gardner
(c) 2020 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
(c) 2020 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Isabella Gardner

primary (Mora, 1860 - 1920, Mora)
subject (New York, 1840 - 1924, Boston)
Date1894
Place MadeBoston, Massachusetts, United States, North America
MediumEtching
Dimensions25.2 x 20 cm (9 15/16 x 7 7/8 in.)
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession number3.3.r.128.1
eMuseum ID724499
Original Number2.2.o.69
Previous NumberP33s76.1
EmbARK ObjectID14062
TMS Source ID2890
Last Updated10/3/24
Status
Not on view
Web CommentaryThis etching was Zorn’s first commission from Isabella Gardner. With her black dress, distinctive feather plume and coat of arms, Gardner is shown here as a status-conscious member of the American upper class. The date on the inscription, 18 February 1894, marked Zorn’s 34th birthday. He celebrated this occasion with Gardner at a party thrown in his honor at her home in Boston’s Back Bay.

Source: Anders Zorn: A European Artist Seduces America, special exhibition on view in the museum's Hostetter Gallery, February 28 – May, 2013.
BibliographyNotesKarl Asplund. Anders Zorn: His Life and Work (London and Chicago: "The Studio," Ltd. and A. Kroch & Company, 1921), p. 73 no. 85.
Morris Carter. Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court (Boston, 1925; Reprint, Boston, 1972), p. 138.
Michelle Facos. Swedish Impressionism’s Boston Champion: Anders Zorn and Isabella Stewart Gardner. Exploring Treasures in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum VI. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1993), pp. 24-27.
Alan Chong et al. (eds.) Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 2003), p. 215.
Elizabeth Anne McCauley et al. Gondola Days: Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro Circle. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2004), pp. 104-109, fig. 76.
Sven Lidbeck, Anders Zorn Etchings: Catalogue Raisonné (Helsinki, 2007), p. 119, ZG84.
Oliver Tostmann et al. Anders Zorn: A European Artist Seduces America. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2013), pp. 142-45, no. 21a.
MarksNotesSigned and dated on plate (lower left): Zorn Boston, 18 Febr. 1894
On plate (upper right corner): Gardner-Stewart coat of arms and name: Isabella
ProvenanceNotesCommissioned by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the artist Anders Zorn (1860-1920), Boston in 1894. Set of 34 etchings purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner's husband John Lowell Gardner, Jr. (1837-1898).