A17: Pennsylvania Kitchen, 1752
Narcissa Niblack Thorne (American, 1882–1966)
c. 1940
- Medium
- Miniature room, mixed media
- Classification
- Miniature room
- Dimensions
- External: 50.8 × 113.1 × 62.9 cm (20 × 44 1/2 × 24 3/4 in.); Internal (main room only): 24.5 × 64.2 × 49.6 cm (9 5/8 × 25 1/4 × 19 1/2 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):
17: Pennsylvania Kitchen, 1752 Although it dates from roughly the same period as the preceding rooms, this model suggests an entirely different kind of life. For this room, Mrs. Thorne drew upon elements from two interiors—originally part of the Jerg Muler house in the town of Millbach—that are installed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Muler was the town’s miller and appears to have enjoyed a…
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
