The Taft Museum (part 2)

The Taft Museum of Art is housed in a building that was built in 1820 and is a National Historic Landmark. Home to the families of several millionaires over a period of more than a hundred years, Anna and Charles Taft bequeathed their home and renowned art collection to the people of Cincinnati.

 The museum opened to the public in 1932.

This post is by no means an overview of the museum's art collection. Being here was a somewhat sentimental journey for me, as I have been here many times before.  I didn't realize it at the time, but I was very lucky in that my parents took me and my siblings to Cincinnati's museums often; it wasn't until I was older that it occurred to me that there were actually many people who never went to museums, though we have quite a few high-quality and well-celebrated ones right here in Cincinnati. (I live just across the river in northern Kentucky.)

One of my favorite paintings in the museum is W. J. M. Turner's Europa and the Bull.  But my favorites pieces at the Taft Museum have always been the exquisite Chinese porcelains, some of which go back as far as the Ming dynasty (mid-fourteenth to mid seventeenth century).

As I walked from room to room, I remembered how the opulence of the house had impressed me as a child; the antique carpets and beautiful furnishings made me feel that I was in the presence of something sacred: art.

Some of the pieces were so ingrained in my memory that I felt I was meeting old friends.

The museum also has a large collection of Limoges Renaissance enamels...

... and murals painted by famed African-American artist Robert Duncanson.

A few more of my favorites paintings:

At the Piano, James Abbott McNeil Whistler

The Cobbler's Apprentice, Frank Duveneck

The Song of the Talking Wire, Henry Farny

I hope you enjoyed going with me on my little trip down Memory Lane. Wishing everyone a wonderful week!