After a visit to the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum, I was struck by a painting that drew a few parallels to my themes. Immediately I was drawn to the appearance of fabric behind Mrs. Gardner. It turns out she chose this tapestry to be hung behind her. This is one of the wonderful things about Isabella, especially for her time, she always made the choices.Our timing was good because there was a talk about the piece as I was there that afternoon. It turns out this painting was very controversial for its time, because of her attire. Although it has lost its shock factor on us, for the period, it was unnatural for woman to show their arms, in addition they were appalled by her plunging neckline, not to mention that is no place for pearls. Again, this was Isabella's choice to dress this way. She liked her arms, her chest and her waist and didn't care what others thought. After the painting debuted and the critics were shocked, Mr. Gardner refused to have the painting shown to anyone during his lifetime, and it wasn't.
In conclusion, this got me thinking that I would love to do a bit of an ode to Sargent and Isabella. I have a friend in mind that I think would fit her personality and daring approach. In my modern day take I will have to do a little more to get that shock of course. I've also decided it would be fun to give my subject the same choice of fabric as a backdrop. I will take her to the fabric store and let her pick what she will be surrounded by in her painting. Mine will also be real fabric, since that is how I roll. I am hoping to get it to a place where those who knew the painting got it, but it didn't hit you over the head. We will see how this goes!
- Danielle
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