Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

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Anna Louise Taft Semple

Birthname: Anna Louise Taft
Nationality: American
Date of birth: 1879
Date of death: 1961
Category: collector

Identity:

She married William Semple, an assistant professor in the classics department at the University of Cincinnati: he was head of the department from 1920-1959.

Life:

Whistler's A Girl by a Shelf y048 was bought in 1940 by Anna Louise Taft Semple and William Semple. She bequeathed it to the Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, which had been lavishly supported and endowed by her family.

Bibliography:

Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 .

'The Taft Influence', UC Magazine, University of Cincinnati website. 'Department of Classics', website.