Mary Berenson later wrote about the strong draw Bernard Berenson had for her early on: she said his letters “made me feel I was taking part in the kind of life I longed for; free, devoted to beauty, fortified by study and leading to endless spiritual and aesthetic adventures.”

Bernard Berenson at twenty-one and seventy-one. Biblioteca Berenson, Villa I Tatti—The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, courtesy of the President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Source: Rachel,Cohen. Bernard Berenson (Jewish Lives) (pp. 8-9). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.