Taft graduated from the University of Illinois in Champaign and from 1880 to 1883 attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he received a conservative, traditional art education with an emphasis on mythological and literary subjects. Although Taft began his career as a sculptor of portrait busts and monuments dedicated to soldiers, his best- known work consists largely of gracefully idealized, allegorical figures—e.g., Fountain of the Great Lakes (1913; Art Institute of Chicago) and The Fountain of Time (1922; Washington Park, Chicago).

Taft's long career as teacher and public lecturer began at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1886. He was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1911 and was active in planning programs for public education in art, serving from 1914 to 1917 as director of the American Federation of Arts. In 1903 he published The History of American Sculpture, the first comprehensive work on the subject. His Modern Tendencies in Sculpture was published in 1921. Midway Studios, Taft's former home, is preserved as a national monument on the campus of the University of Chicago.