Crest of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
primaryDesigned by
Sarah Wyman Whitman
(Lowell, 1842 - 1904, Boston)
designer
Isabella Stewart Gardner
(New York, 1840 - 1924, Boston)
stone carver
John Evans and Company
(active Boston, 19th century)
Dateabout 1900
Place MadeUnited States, North America
MediumSandstone
ClassificationsArchitectural Elements
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberSOn3.a-b
eMuseum ID718596
Original NumberSOn3
EmbARK ObjectID15079
Previous NumberSOn2
TMS Source ID3696
Last Updated8/9/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryIsabella asked her friend, artist and writer Sarah Wyman Whitman to design this distinctive crest bearing a phoenix rising from the ashes, an emblem of immortality, and the phrase C’est Mon Plaisir (It’s My Pleasure), one of Isabella's mottoes and in the words of her biographer, "the reason and, in her opinion, the justification for her every action." It is installed above the museum’s former entryway on the north side of the building.
BibliographyNotesMorris Carter. Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court (Boston, 1925; Reprint, Boston, 1972), p. 188. (as designed by Isabella Stewart Gardner)
George L. Stout. Treasures from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1969), p. 41, ill.
Francis G. Hutchins. "Stained Glass Pragmatism: Sarah Wyman Whitman's Lowell Window at First Parish, Brookline, Massachusetts." First Parish Church in Brookline, website (2009), p. 2, n3. (as designed by Sarah Wyman Whitman, commissioned by Isabella Gardner)
Pieranna Cavalchini and Amanda Esteves-Kraus (eds.). Portrait (Boston, 2012), p. 25. (quoting the Diary of Willard T. Sears, 23 Nov. 1900; as "from a drawing made by Mrs. Whitman")
Shana McKenna, "Sarah Wyman Whitman: Artist and Advocate," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 30 November 2020, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/sarah-wyman-whitman-artist-and-advocate
George L. Stout. Treasures from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1969), p. 41, ill.
Francis G. Hutchins. "Stained Glass Pragmatism: Sarah Wyman Whitman's Lowell Window at First Parish, Brookline, Massachusetts." First Parish Church in Brookline, website (2009), p. 2, n3. (as designed by Sarah Wyman Whitman, commissioned by Isabella Gardner)
Pieranna Cavalchini and Amanda Esteves-Kraus (eds.). Portrait (Boston, 2012), p. 25. (quoting the Diary of Willard T. Sears, 23 Nov. 1900; as "from a drawing made by Mrs. Whitman")
Shana McKenna, "Sarah Wyman Whitman: Artist and Advocate," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 30 November 2020, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/sarah-wyman-whitman-artist-and-advocate
MarksNotesInscribed (banner): CEST MON PLAISIR (it's my pleasure)
ProvenanceNotesCommissioned by Isabella Stewart Gardner from Sarah Wyman Whitman, Boston to design her seal with her motto "C'est Mon Plaisir" in about 1900.
