THINGS OF BEAUTY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18949, 21 February 1925, Page 2 (Supplement)

THINGS OF BEAUTY.

AMERICAN WOMAN'S HOBBY, • MRS. " JACK'S " MUSEUM. APPEAL OF THE OLD WORLD. There died not long ago in Boston United Slates, a lady ■who managed to get herself talked about a .great deal. In. stead of doing what thousands of well, to-do women in America did. she went her own way. She was Mrs. John L. Gardner, generally shortened to Mrs. "Jack." She shocked the aristocrats of Boston by appearing to he as dense as possible on the thorny subject of what is "done"' and "not done" in society; and before sho died she achieved a singular renown. Mrs. "Jack" was intensely interested in beautiful things and in the people who created them. She had great wealth, and it seemed to her "just and right that sho should offer friendship and support to artists and writers. To her, in very truth, a thing of beauty was a joy for ever. Unconsciously, and without any idea of posing as a great parson, Mrs. "Jack" carried on the traditions of patrons of art in the old days—men like tho Medici princes of Florence, who made pos. siblc the painting of some of the pictures which are now among the world's trea. SUIT'S, Beauty of the Middle Ages. Mrs. "Jack," a daughter of a candy manufacturer of New York, a "vobodv" according to the Boston people, had a great sonf. a fid was possessed of boundless courage. She was intensely alive, vital, and touched by lovely things. Italy caught her in its fairy meshes, and it seemed to her that life at its longest was not long enough to absorb the beauty of the Old World. She built a house outside Boston called Fenway Court, and there she began to store up bits of medieval Europe. v "Italy, my Italy," her heart cried when some lovely painting, some piece of mosaic, a tapestry, or a statue was set in its place. Years passed. This small, alight woman with the vivid and speaking face became mature, and then old: but she changed not in her absorbing love for the things that affect the soul and not the body. Windows Travel Across the Sea. She spent immense sums of money in bringing to Fenway scraps of Italian houses and decorations, old manuscripts, potteries, and bronzes, so that when fin* [ ished her bouse was.a. curious mirror of [ many places and periods. She brought some windows bodily across from Europe for one of the courtyard facades of Fenway. The workmen looked at them in perplexity and said at last, querulously, " Do you know that no two of these windows are the same size?" " They're not intended to be," replied Mrs. " Jack," " and you may go down on your knees and thank God for it.". Worth A King's Ransom. She bought pictures by Raphael. Titian, | Durer, and Giorgione, at a price that reminds one of the old saying "worth a king's ransom.". The ends of the earth ! contributed to the art end beauty of her house. And how this magnificent palace, worth £4,000.000, is a public museum for the people of Boston and of all America,