Diminutive marvels of artistry and fine craftsmanship, portrait miniatures reveal a wealth of information within their small frames. They can tell tales of cultural history and biography, of people and their passions, of evolving tastes in jewelry, fashion, hairstyles, and the decorative arts. Unlike many other genres, miniatures have a tradition in which amateurs and professionals have operated in parallel and women artists have flourished as professionals. This richly illustrated book presents approximately 180 portrait miniatures selected from the holdings of the Cincinnati Art Museum, the largest and most diverse collection of its kind in North America. The book stresses the continuity of stylistic tradition across Europe and America as well as the vitality of the portrait miniature format through more than four centuries. A detailed catalogue entry, as well as a concise artist biography, appears for each object. Essays examine various aspects of miniature painting, of the depiction of costume in miniatures, and of the allied art of hair work.

“A literary experience unlike any I’ve had in recent memory . . . a blueprint for this moment and the next, for where Black folks have been and where they might be going.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) What does it mean to be Black and alive right now? Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham have brought together this collection of work—images, photos, essays, memes, dialogues, recipes, tweets, poetry, and more—to tell the story of the radical, imaginative, provocative, and gorgeous world that Black creators are bringing forth today. The book presents a succession of startling and beautiful pieces that generate an entrancing rhythm: Readers will go from conversations with activists and academics to memes and Instagram posts, from powerful essays to dazzling paintings and insightful infographics. In answering the question of what it means to be Black and alive, Black Futures opens a prismatic vision of possibility for every reader.

“This book constitutes a very welcome contribution to the public appreciation and scholarly study of Henry Ossawa Tanner, a painter of considerable significance in both Europe and America, and one whose religious imagery merits careful consideration. These well-researched essays by an international team of scholars offer substantial reflections on complex issues of race and religion, and situate the artist’s work and career within the context of his life and times. This is a robust framing of Tanner as a cultural phenomenon and one that readers will find quite rewarding.”—David Morgan, Professor of Religion at Duke University and author of The Embodied Eye: Religious Visual Culture and the Social Life of Feeling “Henry Ossawa Tanner has finally been recognized as an important artist in the last twenty years, and is now firmly part of the American canon as the first major African American painter to emerge from the academy. This book enriches our understanding of Tanner’s historic place in American art by considering his work as an early modernist religious artist—a status entwined with his race, but not defined by it. These essays, by an impressive collection of scholars, are full of substantially new material, and succeed in broadening our conception of Tanner’s life and work.”—Bruce Robertson, Professor of Art and Architecture at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Seeing the bold, confident handling with which Frank Duveneck (1848&ndash1919) infuses life into his subjects can be breathtaking. This is the first major publication in more than 30 years devoted to Duveneck, one of the most influential and widely respected late-nineteenth century American artists.Beloved to his students, Duveneck was lauded by many Gilded Age luminaries such as James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Henry James. Yet a century after his death, he is largely known only for a single, brilliant painting, The Whistling Boy. By contextualizing his work in the artistic, cultural and social milieus of the time, this publication offers diverse perspectives on Duveneck's life, work, subjects and reputation. The essays span his beginnings as a painter of dark realism to his later impressionistic work and examine his significance as a printmaker and draftsman. The lavishly illustrated volume includes a chronology and selected bibliography.

A remarkable presentation of hand-carved furnishings and woodwork from late-nineteenth-century Cincinnati that reflect the city's energetic response to the Aesthetic movement.

"Rexroth's most notable work, Iowa, is a series of dream-like and poetic images.Each seemingly candid and liquid composition includes a soft focus and vignette, characteristic qualities of Diana camera images. [...] The Iowa series subconsciously expresses Rexroth's childhood memories of visiting family in Iowa. Growing up in the suburbs of Arlington, Virginia, she was captivated by the exotic summer landscapes of Iowa. Although the influence of her memories is present, Rexroth refers to Iowa as a hallucinatory state of mind rather than a concrete geographic location of personal sentiment. She describes Iowa as 'conceived of as a kind of psychic journey from one emotional mood to the next-- a maturation process. It all happens in a place which is very exotic.' In the introduction to the book, Mark L. Power describes this work as 'Sunny Iowa was transformed by memory into a dark Iowa with "a real feeling of melancholy." [...]"