Boston: Fenway Park & Gardner Museum

Today I rode down to Boston with two new friends – Erin and Julie – to tour the Gardner Museum and to watch the Red Sox play at Fenway Park. Erin is a lawyer from Alabama who is looking from insurance and delict law to becoming a teaching law as a professor. Julie is a recent graduate from Wisconsin and is pretty quiet. That said, I made up for any doldrums in the conversation by regaling the two of them with anecdotes from my days in Edinburgh. My time in Edinburgh is a golden era, which has already been romanticized in my reflective outlook.

The Gardner Museum is named for Isabella Stewart Gardner, who collected the bulk of the paints, sculptures, tapestries, frescos, veneers, and curios. Mrs Gardner was born on 14 April 1840 in New York City and moved to Boston after marrying John “Jack” Lowell Gardner in 1860. Mrs Gardner’s father died in 1891 leaving her with an estate worth $1.6 million at the time. The Gardners travel extensively in Europe, spending time at the Palazzo Barbaro in Venice where they decide to commence construction of a purpose built art museum patterned after the great Italian villas. In 1898, Mr Gardner dies, and Mrs Gardner pushes on to complete the dream the two shared.

In 1903 the Gardner Museum opens to the public. In 1924, Mrs Gardner dies at the age of 84, leaving her collections and museum to a trust for the benefit of the public. The only stipulation is that the paintings must not be rearranged from how she set up the displays.

In 1990, during the St Patrick’s Day celebrations, two policemen arrive at the Gardner Museum informing the guards of an alarm. After letting the policemen into the museum, they bound-up the guards and stole 13 paints, sculptures and tapestries worth an approximate $500 million at the time. The works stolen included: Vermeer’s “The Concert” and Rembrandt’s “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee”. No works have been recovered and the museum still posts a $5 million reward for the successful recovery of the paintings.

As I walked into one of the galleries, I noticed a frame with no canvas and a simple note which reminded patrons of the atrocious villainous act which occurred in March 1990. I was very impressed to see Titian’s “Europa” and a self-portrait of Rembrandt. To also see John Singer Sargent’s, James Whistler’s and Piero della Francesca’s works was very impressive. MacKnight has a style which reminded me of a Currier and Ives – a romantic winter scene, complete with idyllic characters on a sleigh ride.

After the museum we had a light lunch and then set off for Fenway Park, which is celebrating its centennial this season. I sat in section 32, row 02, seat 05. The view was magnificent! The historic baseball park had an aura which was magical and captured a glorious past which modern stadiums seem to omit. It was much smaller than I thought it would be, as Colorado’s Coors Field seems much, much larger. The Red Sox hosted the Baltimore Orals and managed to win 2-1. The game was complete with the crowd singing to the organ music of “Take Me Out To The Ball Game”. I felt as if I had slipped back in time and began to wonder if I would seem ‘Ricky Ricardo and Fred Mertz’ would come wondering by with peanuts and cracker jacks looking for little Ricky. The Red Sox second baseman that was just moved up from the minors had two of the best catches I have ever seen. While a late season trade led fans to criticise the owner, John Henry, for getting rid of the players they knew and loved, perhaps a better slot in the draft and a few “home-grown” players will improve the odds for next season. I was thrilled to be one of the fans to have seen a game at Fenway during the park’s 100^th birthday!!