Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner by Natalie Dykstra

Thursday, February 12, 11:00 am. Ticket price includes Museum admission.

Join award-winning biographer Natalie Dykstra for a captivating talk on her acclaimed book Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner, followed by a book signing. Dykstra explores how Gardner’s extraordinary life—marked by profound loss, bold friendships, adventurous travel, and an eye for magnificent art—shaped the creation of her iconic museum, arranged precisely to her own imaginative design.

Copies of Chasing Beauty will be available for purchase in the Museum Shop.

Natalie Dykstra is the author of Clover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life, which won a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowship and was a finalist for the 2013 Massachusetts Book Award.  Her recent book, Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner, has received a New England Society of New York Book Award and the Marfield Prize, the national award for arts writing.  Her work has been supported by a Public Scholars grant from the NEH and an inaugural Robert and Ina Caro Research Fellowship from the Biographers International Organization.  She has been an honorary fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society since 2011 and is an emerita professor of English at Hope College.  She lives with her husband near Boston.

This event is presented in conjunction with:

Art Buffet

On view October 9, 2025 – January 25, 2026

Cancellation policy: CCMoA must be notified 1 week prior for a refund.