Taft Museum of Art: Highlights from the Collection

This new volume presents highlights of the Taft Museum of Art's exceptional collection, which spans over 750 years of creative endevour. Donated to the city of Cincinnati in 1927, Charles and Anna Taft's collection features beautiful porcelain from the Ming and Qing dynasties, paintings by masters including Rembrandt, Gainsborough, Goya, Ingres, Corot, Whistler, and Sargent, and decorative objects including crystal, gold, silver, and enamel-work. The 80 works that feature in this volume, chosen from the 740-piece collection, are presented in four sections, coinciding with the museum's major areas of specialization: European painting, European decorative arts, American art, and Chinese art. Each piece is accompanied by an entry detailing its history and that of its artist or maker written by Taft curatorial staff. Lynne D. Ambrosini's essay explores the collecting practice of Charles and Anna Taft. Deborah Emont Scott's foreword provides a history of the Taft bequest and its lasting significance to the city of Cincinnati and its present day inhabitants. AUTHOR: Lynne D. Ambrosini is deputy director and the Sallie Robinson Wadsworth Chief Curator, Taft Museum of Art. Lynne Ambrosini has overseen the collection and exhibitions at the Taft since 2004, having earlier worked at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Brooklyn Museum. She earned a PhD in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, N.Y.U. Her exhibitions for the Taft include: Hiram Powers: Genius in Marble (2007), Brush/Clay/Wood: The Nancy and Ed Rosenthal Collection of Chinese Art (2008), and Daubigny, Monet, Van Gogh: Impressions of Landscape (2016). She has also published many articles and given invited lectures on such artists as J.F. Millet, Gustave Courbet, Edouard Manet, J.A.M. Whistler, Claude Monet, and Auguste Rodin. 101 colour and 5 b/w illustrations