Editor Pick
De Cordova Museum and Sculpture Park
- July 25, 2000
- Rated 3 of 5 by
AngelaM from Boston, Massachusetts
Like the Gardner Museum, the De Cordova Museum started out as the vision of a sole collector. Julian de Cordova (1850-1945) traveled the world, collecting anything he found interesting. In the later years of his life he opened his home to visitors so the public could share his collection. To continue this beyond his lifetime he willed his property to the town of Lincoln (not far outside Boston), stipulating that it should be turned into a public museum.
Unlike the Gardner Museum which displays the collection exactly as Isabella Stewart Gardner specified, Julian de Cordova’s collection was unfortunately determined not to be of significant value by independent appraisers, and the decision was made after his death to transform the museum into a venue for regional contemporary artists. The De Cordova Museum officially opened to the public in 1950. Today’s visitors will enjoy an important permanent collection of New England artists, in addition to ever changing exhibits within the museum and a 35-acre sculpture park (the only one in the New England area). If you have been to the museum in the past it is well worth a visit again as the galleries change so regularly it is often like visiting an entirely new museum.
From journal The Art of Boston