Oftentimes visitors to the Gibson House Museum ask our guides about Charlie Gibson Jr.’s relationships with other well-known Bostonians, especially Isabella Stewart Gardner. Although the two were neighbors for nearly forty years, there is not much evidence that they were close. (Isabella Stewart Gardner was both a generation older than Charlie and was part of a higher social class.) There is, however, evidence that they were acquaintances.
Isabella Stewart Gardner was, and still is, considered one of the most prominent, and perhaps
eccentric, members of Boston’s elite in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She was born in New York City in 1840 to a wealthy family. In 1860, just before she turned twenty, she married Jack Gardner and they moved to Boston, to 152 Beacon Street in the Back Bay. Although the couple traveled abroad quite a bit, Beacon Street was their home until Jack’s death in 1898, after which Isabella purchased land in the Fens for the museum and home they had been planning. During this same period, Charlie Gibson was born (1874), grew up in the Back Bay at 137 Beacon Street, and went on the trip to France which inspired his travelogue, Two Gentlemen in Touraine (1899). The Gibson family lived just two blocks from the Gardners during the entire time they resided in the Back Bay.
For much of her adult life, Isabella, was a well-known and beloved patron of the arts in Boston, fostering close-knit communities of artists, writers, and intellectuals. She often hosted art-related galas, much like the famous one on opening night of her museum, on January 1, 1903. That night alone she hosted hundreds of Boston’s elite as they enjoyed a concert performed by members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Cecilia Society. Charlie would have been aware of the concerts, lectures, exhibitions, and performances Isabella frequently hosted, as well as her patronage of writers, but there is no documentation of their first meeting.
No matter the way in which they first came to know one another, records indicate that Charlie and Isabella were nonetheless acquainted with one another. Charlie visited Fenway Court at least three times between 1894 and 1904, as his signature can be found in her guest book. He also wrote three poems dedicated to Isabella and her home. These poems and two letters Charlie and Isabella exchanged can be found in the Gibson House and Gardner Museum archives.
The letters are simple inquiries on both accounts. Sometime in the late 1800s (the exact date is unknown), Charlie wrote, “as a humble worshiper of the Arts” to ask to be allowed to visit Fenway Court after hearing so much of its grandeur. He includes a few lines of verse about the palazzo, asking if Isabella might be amenable to guiding him through her home so that he may “feel the measure of its magic name!” The second letter, from 1906, is a request from Mrs. Gardner for Charlie to send her his book of poems, The Spirit of Love and Other Poems, when it came out for Christmas.
The poems, in comparison, are filled with more emotion and heartfelt words. The first of these, “Green Hill (Lines written beneath a tree, while waiting for its mistress),” written on May 15, 1898, during what may have been Charlie’s second visit to Fenway Court. It describes the beauty of the Fens surrounding the house on that spring evening and is dedicated to “Mrs. Gardner with the sincere compliments of Charles Gibson.” Five years later, Charlie wrote Isabella another poem about her home/museum, “Fenway Court - Written after a Fresh Visit.” “Fenway Court” expounds on the beauty of the interior of the home and how it was alive with “art/that fan the senses and awake the heart;”
“‘There’s a great spirit gone!’/Not dead. Its truthful image is impressed/Deep in the sculptured corner-stone,/In all the artistry of genius dressed.” So begins the final of the three poems Charlie dedicated to Isabella and her beautiful palazzo, titled “The Legacy of Fenway Court.” Charlie wrote this poem some time after Isabella Stewart Gardner died in 1924. “The Legacy of Fenway Court” expresses raw grief at the loss of such a prominent patron of the arts, but at the same time displays hope for a future where her memory will live on in her museum.
Although it had been a number of years since his last visit (likely in 1904), Charlie still felt close enough to both Isabella and Fenway Court to compose this poem. He may have written this as an ode to a friend or, more likely, a well-connected patron of the arts, a person whom he may have wished to know better. If she felt so inclined, Isabella would have been able to connect Charlie with more people, more artists and writers, who would help him further his own career and relationships in the community. With the connections he would be able to gain by becoming part of Isabella’s circle of intellectuals, Charlie would have been able to gain significance as a pillar of the writing community, something that he wanted throughout his life. The two may not have been friends, but Isabella Stewart Gardner and Charlie Gibson were most certainly acquainted and connected by their deep passion for literature and fine arts.
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| Drawing Room at 152 Beacon Street, 1900. Image: Gardner Museum |
For much of her adult life, Isabella, was a well-known and beloved patron of the arts in Boston, fostering close-knit communities of artists, writers, and intellectuals. She often hosted art-related galas, much like the famous one on opening night of her museum, on January 1, 1903. That night alone she hosted hundreds of Boston’s elite as they enjoyed a concert performed by members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Cecilia Society. Charlie would have been aware of the concerts, lectures, exhibitions, and performances Isabella frequently hosted, as well as her patronage of writers, but there is no documentation of their first meeting.
No matter the way in which they first came to know one another, records indicate that Charlie and Isabella were nonetheless acquainted with one another. Charlie visited Fenway Court at least three times between 1894 and 1904, as his signature can be found in her guest book. He also wrote three poems dedicated to Isabella and her home. These poems and two letters Charlie and Isabella exchanged can be found in the Gibson House and Gardner Museum archives.
The letters are simple inquiries on both accounts. Sometime in the late 1800s (the exact date is unknown), Charlie wrote, “as a humble worshiper of the Arts” to ask to be allowed to visit Fenway Court after hearing so much of its grandeur. He includes a few lines of verse about the palazzo, asking if Isabella might be amenable to guiding him through her home so that he may “feel the measure of its magic name!” The second letter, from 1906, is a request from Mrs. Gardner for Charlie to send her his book of poems, The Spirit of Love and Other Poems, when it came out for Christmas.
Although it had been a number of years since his last visit (likely in 1904), Charlie still felt close enough to both Isabella and Fenway Court to compose this poem. He may have written this as an ode to a friend or, more likely, a well-connected patron of the arts, a person whom he may have wished to know better. If she felt so inclined, Isabella would have been able to connect Charlie with more people, more artists and writers, who would help him further his own career and relationships in the community. With the connections he would be able to gain by becoming part of Isabella’s circle of intellectuals, Charlie would have been able to gain significance as a pillar of the writing community, something that he wanted throughout his life. The two may not have been friends, but Isabella Stewart Gardner and Charlie Gibson were most certainly acquainted and connected by their deep passion for literature and fine arts.
- Beck Green (Boston University), Curatorial Intern, Fall 2021
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