Reading the Art World: Diana Greenwald, “Isabella Stewart Gardner: A Life"
For this episode of our podcast "Reading the Art World," host Megan Fox Kelly speaks with art historian and author, Diana Seave Greenwald, about her recent book, “Isabella Stewart Gardner: A Life,” was published by Princeton University Press. The book is a fascinating new biography about legendary art collector and philanthropist Isabella Stewart Gardner, who remains somewhat of an enigmatic figure. Diana seeks to separate fact from fiction with her in-depth research and what emerges is a multifaceted portrait of a trailblazing collector and patron of the arts—from Italian Renaissance paintings to Chinese antiquities—who built a museum unprecedented in its curatorial vision.
“ I hope they'll understand that Isabella Stewart Gardner is someone who was often at the vanguard of her time, and that her museum is continuing to try to do that, that part of her legacy is to be bold and to be out in front. I think often people think of the Gardner Museum as a place that's frozen in time, and we're not. And we try to honor her legacy in that way, and I hope it's a fun read for them." — Diana Greenwald
Diana is an art and economic historian and is the William and Lia Poorvu Curator of the Collection at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. She received a D.Phil. in History from the University of Oxford. Before doctoral study, Diana earned an M.Phil. in Economic and Social History from Oxford and received a Bachelor’s degree in Art History from Columbia University. She is considered an expert in nineteenth-century American and French art.
This new biography inspired the exhibition “Inventing Isabella”, which opened at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, MA on October 19th and runs through January 15th, 2024.
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