We recently spent a weekend in Boston with our son, who was still twelve at the time, and our eight-year-old daughter. Steeped in history and inextricably linked to long-standing institutions such Harvard University and Fenway Park, there are numerous ways to appreciate this city. Given my preference for looking at art and digging into history, this post will focus on what was prioritized for our two-day adventure.
We stayed at the Revere Hotel Boston Common, conveniently located within walking distance to the Boston Public Garden but more importantly offers free parking. We felt welcomed throughout our stay in Boston which we discovered is very easy to explore by car, on foot or with Uber. We visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, did an early evening sight-seeing tour of Boston that traversed land and water with Boston Duck Tours and strolled through Boston Public Garden after a leisurely ride around the lake in a swan boat.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
This weekend getaway was inspired by the Netflix docuseries This Is A Robbery: The World’s Biggest Art Heist. Within minutes of watching the first episode of this captivating documentary about one of the largest art heists in history, we immediately made plans to visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. While the Netflix series was more concerned with the details of this notorious crime, I was enchanted by the museum itself and needed to experience it in person. Our first steps into this magical space confirmed that this museum was absolutely worth planning an entire weekend around in Boston.
Fascinated by this wonderland of a museum where we felt like we had been transported to Europe, I was swept away by this eclectic space constructed with ancient ruins and architectural fragments collected from across the European continent. Inspired by the villas of Venice, the galleries are organized around a magnificent courtyard overflowing with a vibrant arrangement of flowers and plants. Three stories of rooms are filled with art and furniture spanning centuries and regions, each carefully arranged by the founder,Isabella Stewart Gardner.
Over the course of her lifetime, Gardner spent large chunks of time in Italy but also traveled extensively throughout the world. During these travels, she purchased many of the objects in the museum today but continued to work with international agents to procure additional works of arts following her decision to build this museum to house her rapidly growing collection. The museum opened to the public in 1903 but also served as Gardner’s primary residence. She lived in a fourth floor apartment until her death in 1924 and spent the last twenty years of her life meticulously designing each of the rooms, ensuring that her legacy, her gift to the city of Boston, was finalized down to the smallest detail.
After pouring over a biography of this museum’s founder by Douglass Shand-Tucci, The Art of Scandal: The Life and Times of Isabella Stewart Gardner, I not only had a more thorough understanding of Gardner’s life and the events that led up to the creation of this museum but learned more about the cultural currents flowing around Boston’s elite and intellectual circles around the turn of the century.
As a follow-up to our visit and in response to the Netflix documentary, I contributed an article about the life of Isabella Stewart Gardner to Daily Art Magazine. Click this link to read more.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
We also visited the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, an institution reminiscent of our own Metropolitan Museum of Art. Although smaller, this museum had plenty to offer, however, its standardized approach to the presentation of art, as practiced by most museums, pales in comparison to the immersive experience of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. If time permits for only one museum visit, prioritize Isabella Stewart Gardner’s oasis, also referred to as Fenway Court.
Nonetheless, the MFA, Boston has plenty to offer including the murals and paintings of John Singer Sargent, the Asian Art galleries, paintings that jump right out of art history survey textbooks plus an entirely new American Art wing. The galleries featuring the Art of the Americas is a 21st century look at American art. They encompass the art of Indigenous populations right on through traditional highlights while devoting an entire floor to women artists. The four levels of this new wing overlooking a glass-enclosed courtyard attempt to tell the story of this nation in a manner that does not repeat the exclusions of the past. The curatorial mission to be inclusive and demonstrate an awareness of the historically underrepresented as a method of righting the institutional wrongs of the past are commendable and certainly a step in the right direction.
Boston Duck Tours
Prior to our visit, I heard about an unbelievable opportunity to tour around Boston in an amphibious bus with Boston Duck Tours. Our experience was funny, wacky and very informative, not mention mind-blowing when our vehicle made the transition from land to water into the Charles River and then back onto land. It was worth every penny because we laughed nonstop and learned a lot about Boston during this very unique experience.
So much fun for the kids!
Shaw Memorial
The Shaw Memorial is a large bronze relief sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens located on Boston Common and dedicated to the black soldiers that fought in the Civil War. Paid for by private donations and unveiled on May 31, 1897, this monument depicts the 54th Regiment as they marched down Beacon Street off for war in 1863. This is the ONLY Civil War monument of the nineteenth century to depict black soldiers in full military dress. War monuments have been a point of contention that has led to the removal and rethinking of monuments across the country as well as demanded thoughtful deliberations with regard to the creation of new monuments. I was overjoyed to pass by this monument, especially after reading Kirk Savage’s Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War, and Monument in Nineteenth-Century America.
Boston Public Garden – Swan Boats
Before you leave Boston, make sure to stop by the Boston Public Garden and take a ride on one of the Swan Boats around the lake. Inexpensive and not a long wait, this relaxing ride complimented our amphibious vehicle experience with the Boston Duck Tours.
*The swans are a seasonal treat and are currently closed until April 16, 2022.
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