Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Manet Cafegoer

Summary: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft March 18, 1990 keeps an etching, two bronzes and 11 other works, including the Manet cafegoer, out of sight.

"Chez Tortoni," oil on wood by Édouard Manet, removed from first-floor Blue Room during March 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A model 1986 or 1988 red Dodge Daytona answers to the description of a possible getaway car for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft perpetrators March 18, 1990, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Museum surveillance tapes March 17 at 12:49 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (6:49 a.m. Coordinated Universal Time) bring up the car that late-nighters saw 25 hours later. Thirteen artworks sized from 1.75 by 1.94 inches (4.5 by 5 centimeters) to 63 by 50.38 inches (160 by 128 centimeters) called for a getaway driver. Dutch Room and Short Gallery post-theft inventories detail one etching, one panel, two bronzes, three oils on canvas and five works on paper demanding vehicular transport.

The Blue Room experienced the only first-floor extraction even though motion detectors established only pre-theft footsteps at 12:27 and 12:53 a.m. (6:27 and 6:53 a.m. UTC).

First-floor Blue Room, home of "Chez Tortoni," and neighboring Macknight Room are accessed by the North Cloister; ca. 1933 view from west gives glimpse of Spanish chapel at North Cloister's eastern end: National Park Service's Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Public Domain, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Blue brocatelle, damask and moiré stripe silks function as coverings for all four walls, and furnish the name, of the room nearest the Museum's public entrance.

American and Russian oils on canvas, an American watercolor and Noonday by Paris-born French painter Camille Corot (July 17, 1796-Feb. 22, 1875) grace the east wall. The north wall has American, Australian and Dutch watercolors, American oils on canvas and wood, American photographic reproductions and Swedish works on canvas and on paper. The west wall includes American oils on cardboard and on pasteboard, American and Swedish oils on canvas, American and Italian watercolors and American works on paper.

The south wall juggles just one artwork per French artist after the Manet cafegoer in Chez Tortoni joined the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft casualties.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum gives "about 1875" as the date for "Chez Tortoni"; "Un Atelier aux Batignolles," 1870 oil on canvas portrait of Édouard Manet, at the easel in his studio, by Henri Fantin-Latour (Jan. 14, 1836-Aug. 25, 1904): Musée d'Orsay, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The south wall, like the east wall, knows just one French artwork, Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet's (June 10, 1819-Dec. 31, 1877) A View Across the River.

Édouard Manet's (Jan. 23, 1832-April 30, 1883) Portrait of Madame Auguste Manet historically leads as third, near 15th-century Italian lion finials, of 34 south wall-located artworks. Charles-Émile Jacque's (May 23, 1813-May 7, 1894) Sheep in the Shelter of the Oaks marks the boundary of the first of the south wall's two niches. Rosa Bonheur's (March 16, 1822-May 25, 1899) A She-Goat nestles near Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix's (April 26, 1798-Aug. 13, 1863) The Crusader in the second alcove.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft overlooks all, including Paul-Albert Besnard's (June 2, 1849-Dec. 4, 1934) A Lady with a Rose, but the Manet cafegoer.

Louis Kronberg purchased Manet's Chez Tortoni for Isabella Stewart Gardner Nov. 30, 1922: Gardner Museum @gardnermuseum via Twitter Nov. 7, 2016

The missing Manet cafegoer prompts Blue Room totals of 33 artworks, the same as the night of its theft from Manet's mother being removed for cleaning.

Provenance qualifies Louis Kronberg (Dec. 20, 1872-March 9, 1965), Museum-commissioned purchaser at the American Art Association-organized, Plaza Hotel-held auction Nov. 30, 1922, as last legitimate buyer. The sales receipt for Chez Tortoni, 10.25- by 13.33-inch (26- by 34-centimeter) oil on canvas from about 1875, remains among the Museum's provenance and purchase records. It states: "Portrait of a blasé and yet alert young man writing a letter at the famous Paris café, his refreshing glass resting just at hand."

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft triggers questions regarding the how and when of removing the security-bolted Manet cafegoer and of recovering all 13 casualties.

ca. 1914 photograph of American figure painter and art dealer Louis Kronberg, who arranged for the purchase of "Chez Tortoni" on Isabella Stewart Gardner's behalf: Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Art/William Macbeth Gallery Records, Public Domain, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

"Chez Tortoni," oil on wood by Édouard Manet, removed from first-floor Blue Room during March 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%C3%89douard_Manet_Chez_Tortoni.jpg

First-floor Blue Room, home of "Chez Tortoni," and neighboring Macknight Room are accessed by the North Cloister; ca. 1933 view from west gives glimpse of Spanish chapel at North Cloister's eastern end: National Park Service's Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Public Domain, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division @ https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.ma1748.photos/?sp=9

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum gives "about 1875" as the date for "Chez Tortoni"; "Un Atelier aux Batignolles," 1870 oil on canvas portrait of Édouard Manet, at the easel in his studio, by Henri Fantin-Latour (Jan. 14, 1836-Aug. 25, 1904): Musée d'Orsay, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henri_Fantin-Latour_006.jpg

Louis Kronberg purchased Manet's Chez Tortoni for Isabella Stewart Gardner Nov. 30, 1922: Gardner Museum @gardnermuseum via Twitter Nov. 7, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/gardnermuseum/status/795698602375020546

ca. 1914 photograph of American figure painter and art dealer Louis Kronberg, who arranged for the purchase of "Chez Tortoni" on Isabella Stewart Gardner's behalf: Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Art/William Macbeth Gallery Records, Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/2796856240/i

For further information:

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Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/01/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art_20.html

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