More to Discover

Dive Deeper

Discover more about the art, history, and experiences that bring the Taft Museum of Art to life—within and beyond its walls!

"Life in Quietness and Ease": Thomas Gainsborough’s Landscapes

21 April 2017

Two paintings by Thomas Gainsborough (English, 1727–1788) hang opposite each other in the Taft Museum of Art’s Music Room. On the south wall, two boys dressed in finery look out from a canvas measuring nearly seven feet high. On the north wall, a more modestly sized painting features livestock and rustic peasants dramatically lit within a shadowy copse of trees. This pastoral scene embodies Gainsborough’s true passion: the landscape of England’s countryside.

Cincinnati and the Tafts in the 1880s

17 June 2016

In 1888, the city celebrated its 100th birthday with the Centennial Exposition, held in Music Hall and in two temporary structures built especially for the occasion. In that year, at least 6,000 manufacturers in the city employed 93,500 workers. Cincinnati was a world leader in soap production, carriage manufacturing, beer brewing, whiskey distilling, and lithographic printing. In Over-the-Rhine, hundreds of small businesses flourished, each employing a handful of skilled craftsmen who made fine products—including musical instruments, wood carvings, and blown glass—many in the space of their own homes. The city had also become a center for the arts and art education.

Scroll to top