Isabella's Home

 I enjoyed this article over at Etsy's blog so much that I had to share it with you!

"(Isabella Stewart Gardner) The 19th century art collector and patron, who designed her Boston home as a museum, stipulated in her will that no piece of art should ever be moved. Even empty frames remain on the walls after thirteen paintings valued at $500 million were stolen from the museum in 1990.

Gardner felt that coldness characterized most American museums of her time, so she hired architect Willard T. Sears to create a warm, light-filled space. His plans resemble a 15th-century Venetian palace, with three stories of galleries circling an exquisitely landscaped interior courtyard. In 1901, Gardner moved into the fourth floor, where she lived for the rest of her life. She spent over a year carefully placing each of her 2,500 artworks on the three floors below before she opened her space to the public on January 1st, 1903.

Today, this remains a museum that exalts personal vision, and it’s a thrill and inspiration to those of us who tackle our own spaces with an idiosyncratic sensibility.

Entry is free to anyone named Isabella, and anyone who visits on his or her birthday. Galleries are neither arranged nor named after moments in art history, but instead after the color of the wallpaper or after artists she favored. In all the galleries, works from different times and places are mixed, and unlabeled, to encourage visitors to respond directly to their substance and their arrangement."

 Isn't this place and it's story incredible? How I would love to visit (with my little artist). You can read more about it here.