By the time I touch down in Boston, it’s dark. And late. Delays. Hardly surprising considering the weather patterns from the last few days. I’m hungry. I head straight for the restaurant where I am meeting my little one. I’ve had images of sea food platters all day long. They all contain bits of lobster – a crustacean that I rarely (never, these days) see on my plate back home. But here, I am almost in lobster country. Isn’t Boston home to the lobster roll? With fries and slaw on the side?
Okay, but first comes the soup. Yes, I am in New England.
It’s brisk here now. In the morning, I go to the Law School and listen to a lecture. In the time I am doing this, a band of snowshowers has passed through. I look at the courtyard in front of the law buildings. I seem to bring the stuff with me. Here you go, a gift, from Wisconsin. Still, this is a feeble cover compared to back home! The paths remain stubbornly black. Dark vectors and a tangle of branches, refusing the sweeping cover of whiteness.
I’m used to this stuff. If I ignore it, maybe it’ll disappear.
I walk to the river and look around me. Not much activity here. Cambridge folk aren’t as hardy us we are. One runner. A few cyclists. Empty benches. Silence.
I look into courtyards, admire the spires, the statues, all of it. And now I appreciate the delicate layer of snow. You can’t deny it. Snow beautifies most anything it touches. At least in this month.
Still, it’s cold. I walk into a flower store to see if I can brighten a table with something not entirely seasonal. We must be close to Valentine’s Day. Buckets and buckets of roses.
I pick something with greater staying power and walk across the campus, back to the apartment, thinking ahead to dinner.
Nina, only you could make me nostalgia for Cambridge in winter. I was just in Boston in December and never warmed up the whole time I was there, but still. I loved living in Cambridge, in spite of everything.
ReplyDeleteWhere did you eat? It has been so long since I lived there I'm sure all the restaurants I used to love are gone, or at least very different. Is the Harvest Cafe still there?
Lucky Nina -- Real New England Clam Chowder...Mmmm! You mentioned food AND art. Have you been to the wonderfully idiosyncratic Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum?
ReplyDeleteIsabella and her husband built "Fenway Court" (the house and museum) as both a place to live (on the top floor) and as a museum for Boston (other floors). Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) was an incorrigible individualist long before strong-willed behavior was acceptable for women in polite Boston society. Mrs. Gardner somehow cast a spell on people that let her get what she wanted. She persuaded a zoo to let her borrow two lion cubs to take for walks down Comm Ave. Having missed her train once, she persuaded the railroad to lend her a replacement train for personal use. She even got away with wearing a Red Sox bandanna to a symphony concert. If that's what she was like in day-to-day life, think how good she was at acquiring art and artifacts.
With this in mind it's best not to think of the ISGM as a museum, but more as a Villa or Chateau housing the history of a great woman. Relax, take it in and imagine what it must've felt like to be a party guest, or perhaps a regular visitor like John Singer Sergeant. There is a lot to take in, and it is in no particular order with scant posted information. That's how she wanted it. "Mrs Jack" wanted you to appreciate the art on your own terms, so she chose to keep the labels pretty sparse. Unlike the MFA (undeniably a world-class museum) which labels everything, few things in the ISGM are labeled. In Isabella's will she stipulated that the museum and it's displays could not be changed. So, the museum is just like Isabella left it... every object where she placed it.
The entire house is a work of art, with Isabella and Jack taking parts of ancient houses (columns, urns, headboards) and incorporating them in to the actual museum. A headboard becomes part of a railing while ancient columns circle the magnificent skylit courtyard, filled year-round with fresh flowers from the museum greenhouse.
You'll see works by Titian, Botticelli, Raphael, Rembrandt, Matisse, and Mrs. Gardner's friends James McNeill Whistler and John Singer Sargent. Sargent's portrait of Isabella is worth the visit as is Titian's magnificent Europa, which many scholars consider his finest work, is one of the most important Renaissance paintings in the United States. Everywhere you turn is another gem that simply takes your breath away.
Just try to remember you are in what was built as a home, so the lighting will seem dark compared to modern museums. Keep an eye out for the poignant sight of empty frames of the stolen Rembrandts and Vermeer.
One last suggestion: At the information desk, ask to borrow a copy of "the Guide to the Collection", a small blue book which will enhance your experience.
PS Thanks for the great photos this week.