In a New Light

In 1850, African American artist Robert S. Duncanson received his first major commission to paint a suite of eight large-scale landscape murals in the foyer of Nicholas Longworth’s home, now the Taft Museum of Art. 

Duncanson overcame racial prejudice and other challenges to become the first African American artist to achieve international acclaim.

Made just before the dawn of the French Revolution, this mantel clock features two classically draped allegorical figures symbolizing the importance of the arts and education.

A rooster, one of the national emblems of France and a symbol of bravery and vigilance, stands proudly above. 

Unbeknownst to this clock’s original owner, the workers who gilded its bronze surfaces would have inhaled toxic fumes, leading to mercury poisoning and premature death.

Charles and Anna Taft commissioned this portrait of President William Howard Taft, Charles' younger half-brother. The president sat for the portrait at the White House three months after his inauguration. 

While Sorolla painted President Taft's portrait, the two conversed in Spanish enabled by Taft's fluency, gained while he served as governor of the Philippines (1900–1904) when the islands became a U.S. protectorate after more than 350 years of Spanish rule. 

Charles François Daubigny converted a boat into a floating studio, which allowed him to paint directly from the surface of the water—something that had never been done before. 

Floating on the river in his studio boat, Daubigny could exclude the signs of the modern world from his paintings. 

Daubigny and his patrons preferred scenes that left out the steam freighters and barges on the Seine and eliminated the warehouses, paper mills, and foundries that dotted its banks. 

This is widely considered Whistler’s first masterpiece for its elegance and balance. Whistler’s niece Annie and his sister Deborah Haden posed for the painting not long after the death of Whistler’s father.

As seen here, 19th-century etiquette prescribed what women wore after a loved one’s death. For up to a year, wearing black silk crepe was common. 

This stiff, scratchy fabric contained dyes that stained the skin and irritated the eyes and lungs.

During the early 1800s, many Americans gambled and played card games on tables like this one made of mahogany. 

Lumber merchants imported this material from the West Indies and Central America, where it was largely harvested by Indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans. 

The wood used for this table probably came from what is now Haiti, which abolished slavery in 1804.

Members of the wealthy Dutch middle class often commissioned portraits to commemorate a marriage. 

The portrait of the man’s wife would have hung to his left, and he would have appeared to gesture toward her, an innovative pose for its time. 

With masterful technique, Rembrandt painted the detail and material of the man’s clothing, which signals wealth.

Six widows prepare to defend their homeland and avenge their husbands and sons who have perished in battle. Each practice military tactics on horseback. 

This story appears in medieval Chinese folktales about the loyal Yang family, based on a historical warlord, Yang Ye, who lived during the turbulent Northern Song dynasty (960–1127).

When this vase was painted, most Chinese mothers bound their daughters’ feet, making physical activity such as horseback riding challenging.

Balthasar van der Ast’s still life includes thirty-two species of flowers, eleven kinds of shells, eight types of fruit, five insects and spiders, two lizards, and a parrot.

Global trade exposed Dutch artists, scientists, and collectors to exotic species of flora and fauna like those in this still life. 

These discoveries depended upon the quest for commodities like silk, spices, coffee, and sugar from far-flung places where the Dutch established colonies that profited from both land and people.

Originally housed in the abbey church of Saint-Denis, the burial place of French kings and queens, the sculpture once stood among three ivory angels honoring and crowning the Virgin.

In 1794, French revolutionaries seized the abbey’s treasures, destroying or selling them. Remarkably, this fragile sculpture survived, and is now considered one of the most important medieval ivories in the world.

For most of history, women were excluded from gaining the skills and professional connections necessary to pursue artistic careers. 

Suzanne de Court, however, belonged to a prestigious enameling family, a position that allowed her to learn the trade despite the limited roles for women at the time. 

In de Court's enamel, the only known work in the Taft collection made by a woman, Saint Luke writes his gospel under golden starlight.