Dykstra... astutely situates her subject within Gardner’s growing web of connections ... Its deeper revelations have more to do with Gardner’s emerging attunement to the emotional affirmation to be found in art ... And as Gardner (intentionally) left few written traces of her inner life, this is a real feat of biography.
Sympathetic, impeccably researched ... Ms. Dykstra... compensates for the lack of material about Isabella’s inner life with insightful observations about her subject’s character.
