"A New Look at the Longworths" celebrates significant gift of portraits
Unknown artist, Susan Howell Conner Longworth, probably 1850s, oil on canvas. Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, Ohio, Gift of Emily Renshaw Pistilli, 2024.2. Photo by Tony Arrasmith.
CINCINNATI, OH.—
The Taft Museum of Art announces the new exhibition, A New Look at the Longworths, June 28–November 2, 2025. This show celebrates the generous gift of portraits of Nicholas and Susan Longworth and Nicholas’s sister, Catherine, to the museum by Emily Renshaw Pistilli, Nicholas and Susan’s direct descendent. Newly conserved, the paintings provide an opportunity to delve into the history of this influential Cincinnati family, whose patronage helped shape both the Taft’s and their city’s cultural and civic identity.
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For over three decades (beginning in 1830), Nicholas and Susan Longworth resided in the home that is now the Taft Museum of Art, and indeed, the portraits may have been painted here. The Longworth family has owned the works ever since. The exhibition marks the first time they are on public view.
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“We are so grateful to Emily Renshaw Pistilli for donating these fascinating portraits to us,” says Ellen Roberts, Sallie Robinson Wadsworth Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Taft. “We only rarely add to the museum’s collection but are excited to accept these paintings because they enable us to tell a fuller story of these individuals who were so important to both the history of the Taft and of Cincinnati.”
The exhibition explores who may have made the portraits, the impact of their recent conservation, and new findings about Nicholas Longworth’s complex views on the abolition of slavery. Supplemented by archival materials from the museum’s collection, A New Look at the Longworths offers a deeper understanding of a family whose influence can still be seen in Cincinnati today.
“We are thrilled to present these remarkable portraits and the compelling stories they reveal,” says Tamera Lenz Muente, Taft Museum of Art curator. “Although Nicholas Longworth was known to commission portraits to support artists, very few portraits of him still exist. Even more exciting are the portraits of Susan and Catherine, as we strive to learn more about the women of the Longworth family.”
The museum’s findings will be shared in an upcoming talk on September 21 by co-curators Angela Fuller, assistant curator; Muente; and Laura Stewart, registrar and collections manager.
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