The adventurous life of art patron and museum founder Isabella Stewart Gardner will be portrayed in a one-woman performance by actress Robin Lane on Sunday, November 6, at 2 pm, at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts. The program is free with the price of admission to the museum.

Mrs. Gardner was a strong, independent woman in an era when most women were expected to be submissive to their husbands. Known as “Mrs. Jack” by her contemporaries, she was a witty, eccentric “grande dame.” Envisioning a great American Museum filled with the artistic wonders of the world, she built Fenway Court, her palace in Boston’s Back Bay, after her husband died.

Because Mrs. Gardner considered Venice to be her second home, she styled her museum after a Venetian palazzo and arranged her masterpieces of painting and sculpture throughout the rooms. Among her many works by the Old Masters, the Gardner Museum’s “Rape of Europa” by Titian is one of the most important European paintings on display in America.

Boston actress Robin Lane has presented performances from her series Artful Lives: Living Portraits of Women Artists at museums throughout the country. “The Queen of Back Bay” is one of her most popular shows.

For additional information about the lecture, please call 413.263.6800, ext. 488.