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40-702: The first parkway of the Emerald Necklace to be constructed, the Fenway's name was coined from an early description of the park that it runs alongside. It was first thought that it would promote a high-class neighborhood, but a majority of its early structures were for educational institutions. Current organizations on the parkway's route include the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum , the Museum of Fine Arts , and many colleges and universities. The Fenway begins at

80-609: A reward of $ 5 million for information leading to recovery of the art, doubled in May 2017 to $ 10 million. Empty frames hang in the Dutch Room gallery as placeholders for the missing works. The selection of stolen works puzzled experts, as more valuable artworks were present in the museum. According to the FBI, the stolen artwork was moved through the region and offered for sale in Philadelphia during

120-498: A garden courtyard blooming with life in all seasons. The fourth floor was Gardner's private apartments, now used for administration, and rarely for exhibits. It is a common misconception that the building was brought to Boston from Venice and reconstructed. It was built from the ground up in Boston out of new materials, though it incorporates numerous architectural elements removed from European Gothic and Renaissance structures, worked into

160-484: A high-class neighborhood. As property values rose, however, it was educational institutions that sprung up along the Fenway's route. By 1907, there were twenty-two educationally focused organizations, including nine college and universities which had made their homes on the Fenway. Residential buildings that were built needed their frontages to be approved by the Park Board so that a "poor looking building [did not] depreciate

200-719: A narrow strip of parklands, toward its connection with the Charles River . In a series of stone bridges and tunnels, it passes under Boylston Street, the Massachusetts Turnpike , Commonwealth Avenue , Storrow Drive , and a series of elevated connecting ramps known as the Bowker Overpass (Charlesgate) before joining the Charles. Park Drive, which is located on the other side of the Back Bay Fens, allows for continuous travel in

240-499: A series of parks stretching from the Fens near the existing Commonwealth Avenue greenway to Franklin Park some miles away. The parks were connected to each other by scenic parkways , one of which is the Fenway around the eastern and southern sides of the Fens. When planned, it was thought that the buildings built upon the Fenway would house high-wealth residents and that the whole area would be

280-582: A two-way road with two lanes in each direction past Berklee College of Music and the Boston Conservatory , ending at Boylston Street . At the Boylston Street intersection stands a monument of journalist, novelist and poet John Boyle O'Reilly which was constructed in 1897. The Fenway runs alongside the Muddy River for its entire length and the river continues in a stone-paved channel surrounded by

320-479: A two-year master planning process, the museum's board of trustees determined that a new wing was necessary to preserve the historic building and to provide improved spaces for programs that continue Isabella Gardner's legacy. In 2004, Pritzker Prize –winning architect Renzo Piano and the Renzo Piano Building Workshop (Genoa, Italy) were selected to design the new wing. In 2009, the final approval for

360-621: A way that evokes intimate responses to the art, mixing paintings, furniture, textiles and objects from different cultures and periods among well-known European paintings and sculpture. The museum opened on January 1, 1903, with a grand celebration featuring a performance by members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a menu that included champagne and doughnuts. In 1909, the Museum of Fine Arts moved to its new home close by. During Gardner's lifetime, she welcomed artists, performers, and scholars to Fenway Court to draw inspiration from

400-577: Is also available through concert videos, audio recordings, and a free classical music podcast. The Gardner is part of the Monuments Men and Women Museum Network, launched in 2021 by the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art . The Museum offers free admission to all those named Isabella, for life. The Gardner's exhibitions since 2002 include: The Gardner has also hosted

440-426: The 1880s, while work on the others began in the 1890s. Work started at the Boylston Street connection and much of the curbstone and gutters in the area had been laid by 1885. By 1888, the roadway was complete from Boylston Street to Westland Avenue, but was prevented from continuing further south because of a delay in securing more fill. The Boston City Engineer's report cited a hold up in acquiring property from there to

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480-551: The 1987 book The Letters of Bernard Berenson and Isabella Stewart Gardner (Northeastern University Press). Anne Hawley was director from 1989 until 2015. Peggy Fogelman , the Norma Jean Calderwood Director, began her tenure as director of the museum in 2016. Early in the morning of March 18, 1990, two thieves disguised as police officers robbed the museum of thirteen works worth some $ 500 million – the greatest known property theft in history. Among

520-565: The Brookline Avenue terminus, as the problem since the fill was the dredged material from the new path of the Muddy River. Work continued after the remainder of the land was acquired and the roadway was complete up to the intersection of Parker and Huntington Avenue (today Forsyth Way at the Museum of Fine Arts) by 1890. Construction of the parkway concluded in early 1893 and the completed length of

560-573: The City of Boston. In 1887, the stretch of parkways from Boylston Street to Jamaica Pond were originally referred to as a single group called "the Parkway" by the Boston Park Commissioner, with the current names Fenway, Jamaicaway, and Riverway being authorized by the park commission later that year. Provisional names for the Fenway suggested in 1885 included Rumford, Longview, and Riverdale, although

600-515: The Fenway opened shortly after. The entire route is in the Fenway–Kenmore neighborhood of Boston , Suffolk County . Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts , which houses significant examples of European , Asian , and American art . Its collection includes paintings, sculpture, tapestries, and decorative arts. It

640-407: The Fenway. After the turn-lane drops, the road becomes two-way with one lane in each direction past Simmons College and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum . It then turns northeast at Louis Prang Street and becomes a one-way two-lane road which passes the Museum of Fine Arts and parts of Northeastern University . A short spur connects the parkway to Westland Avenue and from there it continues as

680-589: The Islamic world, and 19th-century France and America. Among the artists represented in the galleries are Titian, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, Manet, Degas, Whistler and Sargent. The first Matisse to enter an American collection is housed in the Yellow Room. Well-known artworks in the museum's collection include Titian's The Rape of Europa , John Singer Sargent's El Jaleo and Portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner , Fra Angelico's Death and Assumption of

720-551: The Riverdale Road [it should] be called Riverway". In an 1879 report outlining the plan for the parks and roadways, the area through which the Fenway would travel was described as a " fenny meadow". The park commission subsequently chose the "Back Bay Fens" as the name for the park and "Fenway" as the name for the parkway because it traveled through it. The Fenway was the first of the Olmsted parkways to be built and work began on it in

760-831: The Virgin , Rembrandt's Self-Portrait, Aged 23 , Cellini's Bindo Altoviti , Piero della Francesca's Hercules , and Botticelli's The Story of Lucretia . The archives hold more than 7,000 letters from 1,000 correspondents, including Henry Adams , T.S. Eliot , Sarah Bernhardt , and Oliver Wendell Holmes , in addition to travel albums, dealer receipts, and guest books. The galleries also contain Gardner's little-known but extensive book collection that includes early-print editions and manuscripts of Dante , works by miniaturist Jean Bourdichon , incunables , and illuminated manuscripts. The museum regularly produces scholarly exhibitions, lectures, family programs, and symposia that provide insights into

800-508: The area and was asked by the park commission in the mid-to-late 1870s to be the judge of a 23-entry design competition to build a new park. Olmsted felt that all of the submitted plans were subpar and either did not take into account flood control or focused too much on it and neglected the public park aspect. The Muddy River and Stony Brook flowed through the Back Bay Fens (the Fens) which were at

840-662: The art pieces are unlabeled, and the generally low lighting is more akin to a private house than a modern art museum. In 1983, the museum was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In 2013, the museum was designated a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission . Gardner collected and carefully displayed a collection of more than 7500 paintings, sculptures, furniture, textiles, silver, ceramics, 1500 rare books, and 7000 archival objects from ancient Rome, Medieval Europe, Renaissance Italy, Asia,

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880-404: The collection and galleries. The project was completed in 2012, and cost $ 118 million. Built to evoke a 15th-century Venetian palace, the museum building provides an atmospheric setting for Gardner's inventive creation. Gardner hired Willard T. Sears to design the building near the marshy Back Bay Fens to house her growing art collection. Inside the museum, three floors of galleries surround

920-571: The crime remains unsolved, and the works, valued at an estimated $ 500 million, have not been recovered. The museum was built in 1898–1901 by Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924), an American art collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts in the style of a 15th-century Venetian palace. It opened to the public in 1903. Gardner began collecting seriously after she received a large inheritance from her father in 1891. Her purchase of Johannes Vermeer 's The Concert (c. 1664) at auction in Paris in 1892

960-467: The design of the turn-of-the-century building. Special tiles were custom designed for the floors, modern concrete was used for some of the structural elements, and antique capitals sit atop modern columns. The interior garden courtyard is covered by a glass roof, with steel support structure original to the building. The Gardner Museum is much admired for the intimate atmosphere in which its works of art are displayed and for its flower-filled courtyard. Most of

1000-442: The early 2000s. They believe the thieves were members of a criminal organization based in the mid-Atlantic and New England . The statute of limitations on the theft has expired but criminal charges could be laid if an individual is found to be in possession of stolen property. In April 2021, Netflix began streaming a four-part documentary about the theft: This Is a Robbery : The World’s Biggest Art Heist. In 2002, after

1040-483: The expansion project was given, but there was much debate about the carriage house. The carriage house, originally built in 1907, was argued to be important for the intent of the first owners, yet the building was torn down in hopes of having the museum preserve the main building. In 2016, the new wing was praised for its appearance by the Boston Society of Architects and awarded a medal for its beauty. The design for

1080-513: The historic collection. Through the Artist-in-Residence program, artists in many disciplines are invited to live at and draw inspiration from the museum. The museum often hosts exhibitions of contemporary art, performances, and programs by those selected. The Gardner's concert series welcomes musicians and emerging artists to perform classical masterpieces, new music, and jazz on Sunday afternoons and select Thursday evenings. The musical program

1120-460: The intersection of Brookline Avenue and the Riverway , heading southeast with three one-way lanes past Emmanuel College to an intersection with Avenue Louis Pasteur. From there, the left and right lanes become turn-only and the middle lane continues straight. Traffic in the left-turn-only lane changes direction and joins the paralleling Park Drive along with the oncoming traffic traveling northeast on

1160-461: The marshy Fenway area of Boston, and hired architect Willard T. Sears to build Fenway Court, modeled on the Renaissance palaces of Venice . Gardner was deeply involved in every aspect of the design, leading Sears to quip that he was merely the structural engineer making Gardner's design possible. After the construction of the building was complete, Gardner spent a year installing her collection in

1200-631: The new wing is conceived as a respectful complement to the historic Museum building in scale, form, and materials. The project adds 70,000 square feet (6,500 m ) consisting of two new buildings. The first building attaches to the original museum and takes on the appearance of four stories in glass and copper. The second building is smaller and is used for greenhouses and living quarters. The new expansion includes spaces for visitor services, concerts, special exhibitions, and education and landscape programs, furthering Isabella Gardner's legacy in art, music, and horticulture while reducing 21st-century strain on

1240-545: The opposite direction of the Fenway. It begins near where the Fenway ends at Boylston Street and enters the same intersection at Brookline Avenue where the Fenway begins. In 1875, the voters of the City of Boston and the Massachusetts legislature approved the creation of a park commission in order to promote the creation of public parks in the city. Frederick Law Olmsted , the landscape architect of New York City 's Central Park , began to spend an increasing amount of time in

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1280-508: The park commission deemed that naming should pass the following criteria. For the entire parkway system, each roadway name had to end in a consistent manner, "naturally aid[ing] in making the idea of continuity and unity familiar to the public, and, if such termination were short, simple and common, it would be in various ways a convenience". Additionally they wished for the names to be "derived from some topographical or historical local circumstance". For example, "instead of [a parkway] being called

1320-639: The rich collection and dazzling Venetian setting, including John Singer Sargent , Charles Martin Loeffler , and Ruth St. Denis , among others. Gardner also occasionally hosted artists' exhibitions within Fenway Court, including one of Anna Coleman Ladd . Today, the museum's contemporary artist-in-residence program, courtyard garden displays, concerts, and innovative education programs continue Isabella Gardner's legacy. When Gardner died in 1924, her will created an endowment of $ 1 million and outlined stipulations for

1360-506: The support of the museum, including the charge that her collection be permanently exhibited "for the education and enjoyment of the public forever" according to her aesthetic vision and intent. Gardner appointed her secretary and the former librarian of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston , Morris Carter (1877–1965) as the museum's first director. Carter catalogued the entire collection and wrote Gardner's definitive biography, Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court . George L. Stout (1897–1978)

1400-469: The time subject to tidal flow, storm flooding, and sewage discharge. The disappointed park commission then asked Olmsted to be its professional adviser and main landscape architect. Under his direction, what is now called the Emerald Necklace took shape. He directed the Fens to be dredged, graded, planted, and turned into a seemingly natural salt marsh to absorb and clean the flowing waters. He then built

1440-659: The value of the whole neighborhood". Additionally, the Board had discretion on whether it felt a proposed building was suitable for frontage along the park and parkway. The hope of these building restrictions was that there would be an improvement in the look of the Fenway compared to neighboring streets. As part of the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston , the Fenway is maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), rather than

1480-464: The works was The Concert (c. 1664), one of only 34 known by Johannes Vermeer and thought to be the most valuable unrecovered painting at over $ 200 million. Also missing is The Storm on the Sea of Galilee (1633), Rembrandt 's only known seascape. For some of the works—the canvases were crudely cut with a blade out of their stretchers . The works have not been recovered. The museum initially offered

1520-403: Was founded by Isabella Stewart Gardner , whose will called for her art collection to be permanently exhibited "for the education and enjoyment of the public forever." The museum opened in 1903. An auxiliary wing designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano , adjacent to the original structure near the Back Bay Fens , was completed in 2012. In 1990, thirteen of the museum's works were stolen ;

1560-460: Was her first major acquisition. In 1894, Bernard Berenson offered his services in helping her acquire a Botticelli . With his help, Gardner became the first American to own a painting by the Renaissance master. Berenson helped acquire nearly 70 works of art for her collection. After her husband John L. Gardner's death in 1898, Isabella Gardner realized their shared dream of building a suitable space to exhibit their treasures. She purchased land in

1600-543: Was the second director. The father of modern conservation, Stout ensured the long-term preservation of the collection and historic structure. Rollin Van Nostrand Hadley (1927–1992) became the third director in 1970. Hadley increased visiting hours, instituted the Membership Program and added a cafe. Hadley also wrote several catalogs for the museum, produced Fenway Court, an annual scholarly publication, and wrote

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