The Visit

Postcards from the cave

I fell into a lucky break in my schedule yesterday and was able to jump on that idea of finally visiting the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. As I said yesterday, I’ve not been -- 33 years living, painting, sculpting in Boston and...nope.

I thought it was in some out of the way, hard to get to corner off The Fenway. I thought I’d never even been past the building. Turns out, given that I lived within a mile of the joint for years, I surely have but never gave this dull box a second glance. Hell, it makes the Parchester Apartments in the Bronx look good. OK no but it's close.

On Monday, I mentioned that ‘I'd always heard that the Gardner's collection wasn't the main reason to go there -- that the art itself was pretty damned tame -- dull even.’ Here’s the deal -- the lighting throughout the museum is so spectacularly poor that I found it impossible to get a grasp of much of what I was looking at.

The folks at the museum know the lighting blows and have been trying to improve the sitch. The article at the link is dated July 2011. If any adjustments or enhancements have been made since then -- well, I can only guess what the museum was like prior. The Krubera Cave at midnight sans headlamps might be about right.

There’s this note on the Plan a Visit/What to Expect page of the website:

Light levels inside the museum vary from space to space. Although the areas surrounding the courtyard are often flooded with natural light, many of the Gardner’s galleries have lower light levels than you may be used to. (understatement alert) Low light levels help us to protect works of art from long-term damage and maintain the interplay of light and shadow that has always been part of the Gardner experience. When entering a darker space from a lighter one, allow your eyes a few moments to adjust.

I would not have expected how astoundingly poorly most of the pieces were illuminated from this write up.

I could tell that they have a ton of fab stuff -- an impressive Byzantine collection, tremendous 16th and 17th century tapestries, luscious little 19th century decorative boxes, wonderfully ornate chairs (though, even in the sehr dim light, I could see that they were in poor, ratty even, shape -- of course. They are centuries old, after all) and awesome congeries of drawings and watercolors.

I wish I could have seen them.

 In a Gardner Museum map from the 1960s, a special note encouraged visitors to bring their own flashlights in order to better view the collection.

Had I understood how dark the place is, I would’ve brought one. It would have helped. Completely.

There was one painting, sitting in a first floor alcove, that was beautifully lit -- John Singer Sargent’s absolutely stunning El Jaleo I’m just mad for his style, his brush stroke. I think I’m even more in love with him than Manet.

Sadly, it was well behind velvet security ropes so impossible to truly drink in.

The exhibit of Anders Zorn’s work was over in the new wing. The work was nicely lit, spaced well (not all crammed together as in the Historical Wing) and not a trial to view. He’s no Singer Sargent but I def liked his style and subjects (nudes, nudes, NUDES!).

My recommendation? Go, def go, but bring a small torch.