Nicholas Longworth's Belmont Mansion Duncanson's success in the Cincinnati art community brought him many substantial commissions, such as that of Nicholas Longworth, one of the city's wealthiest citizens. In 1851, Longworth commissioned Duncanson to paint murals on the walls of his home, which was called the Belmont Mansion. Duncanson created eight murals for the entry of the Belmont Mansion, each nine feet high and six and a half feet wide, that depicted landscapes of the American West. Although the scale of the job was large, and Duncanson was still relatively new to the profession, Longworth selected him to decorate his home because he thought Duncanson to be “one of our most promising painters.” Duncanson's previous training in the trade of house painting served him well in his work on the Belmont Mansion. Duncanson's work on the murals in the Belmont Mansion greatly increased his popularity in the art community of Cincinnati, particularly among the white abolitionist contingent. The murals were eventually covered by wallpaper, but were rediscovered in 1933 and are now displayed in the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati. Work with daguerrotypist James Presley Ball Beginning in 1854, Duncanson worked in the photography studio of James Presley Ball, a prominent African-American photographer, retouching portraits and coloring photographic prints.(pp. 101–103) In 1855, Duncanson and Presley Ball created an anti-slavery panoramic painting titled Mammoth Pictorial Tour of the United States Comprising Views of the African Slave Trade which toured across the country. The work displayed images of the African slave trade, sugar and cotton plantations, and American landscape scenes. Self-imposed exile and international acclaim With the onset of the Civil War, Duncanson exiled himself to Canada and the United Kingdom. In 1863, Duncanson settled in Montreal, where he would work for two years. Duncanson was inspired by the Canadian landscape, as is evident from his works produced then. While in Montreal, Duncanson developed important relationships within the Canadian art scene. He was accepted enthusiastically by the Montreal art community and served as an inspiration for Canadian painters such as Otto Reinhold Jacobi. The Canadians thought of Duncanson as one of “the earliest of our professional cultivators of the fine arts.” Duncanson had a tremendous influence on 19th century Canadian art; he inspired the creation of the first Canadian school of landscape painting. In 1865, he left Canada for the United Kingdom, particularly England and Scotland, to tour one of his