Taft Museum of Art

The Taft Museum of Art is housed in the 200-year-old historic house that is the oldest residential wooden structure in downtown Cincinnati. It was built about 1820 and housed several prominent Cincinnatians. Today it holds a fine art collection.

President William H. Taft accepted his presidential nomination on the porch of this house in 1908. The Taft family later bequeathed their home and their art collection to the people of Cincinnati in 1927.

The Tafts’ deed 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 in 1932, and today’s collections include European old master paintings, 19th-century American paintings, and the Duncanson murals.

The exhibits also include Chinese porcelains, European decorative arts, Limoges enamels, watches, sculptures, and furniture.

Portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson by John Singer Sargent

Highlights of the Taft Museum of Art

• Frank Duveneck, The Cobbler’s Apprentice
• Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait of a Man Rising from His Chair
• J. M. W. Turner, Europa, and the Bull
• Virgin and Child, from Paris, Abbey of Saint-Denis, 
• Frans Hals, Portrait of Seated Man Holding Hat.
• Joaquin Sorolla, Portrait of Mr. Taft, President of the United States
• James Abbott McNeill Whistler, At the Piano

‘The Whale on Shore’ by Joseph Mallord William Turner