At the end of the nineteenth century, a remarkable group of artists, writers and patrons gathered regularly at the Palazzo Barbaro in Venice, Italy. While Venice had long attracted wealthy tourists from across Europe and America, a particularly rich expatriate culture flourished at this time. In the 1880s, Daniel and Ariana Curtis of Boston purchased and restored the Palazzo Barbaro, where they lived in self-imposed exile. The Palazzo eventually became the center of a fascinating circle of American and English personalities living in Venice: the poet Robert Browning; Katharine de Kay Bronson of Newport, a writer greatly interested in local Venetian craft; Sir Austen Henry Layard, an archaelogist and an important collector of Renaissance paintings. Isabella and John Gardner, also of Boston, rented the Palazzo Barbaro every other year, beginning in 1884. A myriad of fascinating figures such as the painters John Singer Sargent, James McNeil Whistler and Claude Monet; the connoisseur Bernhard Bereson; writers Henry James, Paul Bourget, Vernon Lee, and a galaxy of socialites frequently joined this rich and culturally diverse group. As the Gardner Museum commemorates its centennial, Gondola Days accompanies an exhibition which will display the artistic products of this fascinating time and place. It will present this beloved Venetian palace as a source of inspiration for the Gardner, which, under Isabella's direction, became Boston's own Palazzo Barbaro: a Venetian gothic structure, with flowering gardens, full of paintings and objects, but also enlightened by working artists, poets and thinkers. This book explores the distinctive interaction of this small group of individuals, and their special connections with Venice. The exhibition will display paintings, watercolors, drawings, and sketchbooks, as well as photographs (many made by the visitors to the Palazzo), literary manuscripts, letters, albums, and other documents.
