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A15: New York Parlor, 1850–70
Narcissa Niblack Thorne (American, 1882–1966)
c. 1940
- Medium
- Miniature room, mixed media
- Classification
- Miniature room
- Dimensions
- External: 51.2 × 99.7 × 82.6 cm (20 1/8 × 39 1/4 × 32 1/2 in.); Internal (main room only): 31.8 × 44.5 × 53.7 cm (12 1/2 × 17 1/2 × 21 1/8 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
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. 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):
15: New York City Parlor, 1850–70 Mrs. Thorne modeled this room after an interior in a reconstructed New York townhouse. The original residence was the brownstone row house at 28 East 20th Street in which Theodore Roosevelt, who became the twenty-sixth president of the United States, spent the first fourteen years of his life. Razed in 1916, the house was reconstructed on its initial site in 1920 through…
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
