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A4: Connecticut Valley Tavern Parlor, c. 1750
Narcissa Niblack Thorne (American, 1882–1966)
c. 1940
- Medium
- Miniature room, mixed media
- Classification
- Miniature room
- Dimensions
- External: 50.8 × 124.5 × 42 cm (20 × 49 × 16 1/2 in.); Internal (main room only): 20.4 × 43.2 × 37.5 cm (8 × 17 × 14 3/4 in.)
- Culture
- United States
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Applied Arts of Europe
- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. James Ward Thorne
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Narcissa Niblack Thorne, creator of the Thorne Rooms, combined a deep knowledge of design history with a vivid imaginative sensibility. In the 1930s, she assembled a team of skilled artisans in Chicago to construct a series of intricately detailed interiors at the scale of one inch to one foot (1:12).
Conceived as a visual history of interior design, the rooms are at once scholarly and inventive. Meticulously researched and carefully composed, they balance historical accuracy with artistic interpretation. Each atmospheric interior feels like a stage set awaiting its occupants—two parts fantasy, one part history, and entirely absorbing.
Entry from Fannia Weingartner, Miniature Rooms: The Thorne Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago, 2nd ed. (The Art Institute of Chicago, 2004):
4: Connecticut Valley Tavern Parlor, c. 1750 Taverns played an important role in Colonial communities, serving as meeting places for the local citizenry and travelers who gathered to argue politics and transact business, as well as to quench their thirst. Adjacent to the taproom (visible through the door at the right) was the parlor, usually furnished with plain, sturdy pieces of the kind shown in this…
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
