Taft Museum Of Art - Cincinnati Taft Museum

Sunday, May 6, 2018

Taft Museum Of Art - Cincinnati Taft Museum

The Taft Museum of Art is a historic house museum holding a fine art collection in Cincinnati. It is on the National Register of Historic Places listings in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and is a contributing property to the Lytle Park Historic District.

The Taft house was first built for Martin Baum and then was the residence of Nicholas Longworth. David Sinton lived in the house with his daughter Anna, who married Charles Phelps Taft, the half-brother of President William Howard Taft. The Tafts lived in the house from 1873 until 1929. William H. Taft accepted his presidential nomination there from its portico in 1908. The Tafts were avid art collectors. They turned their home into a museum, and donated their Greek Revival house and the collection of art that filled it to the people of Cincinnati in 1927. In the Tafts' deed of gift they stated, "We desire to devote our collection of pictures, porcelains, and other works of art to the people of Cincinnati in such a manner that they may be readily available for all." The Taft Museum opened to the public on November 29, 1932. The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976, in honor of the murals on its walls that were painted by Robert S. Duncanson, one of the first widely known African-American landscape painters, on commission from Nicholas Longworth.

The museum's collections include European old master paintings, with works by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Thomas Gainsborough, Frans Hals, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, and Adriaen van Ostade, among others, and 19th-century American paintings, including the well-known Duncanson murals. The galleries in the historic house also include Chinese porcelains, European decorative arts, Limoges enamels, watches, sculptures, and furniture.

Collection highlights include:

Joaquin Sorolla, Portrait of Mr. Taft, President of the United States, 1909.
Frank Duveneck, The Cobbler's Apprentice, 1877.
Henry Farny, Song of the Talking Wire, 1904.
Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait of a Man Rising from His Chair, 1633.
J. M. W. Turner, Europa and the Bull, ca. 1840â€"50.
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, At the Piano, 1858â€"59.
Anonymous author of the 13th century, Virgin and Child, from Paris, Abbey of Saint-Denis, ca. 1260â€"80.
Olivuccio di Ciccarello, Madonna nursing the Child with Saints.
Frans Hals, Portrait of Seated Man Holding Hat.
Gerard Terborch, Sleeping Soldier.
Jeronymus Van Diest, Sailboats On River with Fisherman.
Corot, Evening:Festival of Pan.
Charles Daubigny, Evening on Oise.
An appreciable collection of Limoges enamel paintings.

The museum reopened in May 2004 after an extensive renovation. The expansion includes a museum shop, the Carl H. Lindner Family CafÃ©, and a lecture and performance space, Luther Hall.