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A29: South Carolina Ballroom, 1775–1835
Narcissa Niblack Thorne (American, 1882–1966)
c. 1940
- Medium
- Miniature room, mixed media
- Classification
- Miniature room
- Dimensions
- External: 69.3 × 119.4 × 108 cm (27 1/4 × 47 × 42 1/2 in.); Internal (main room only): 46.7 × 54 × 76.9 cm (18 3/8 × 21 1/4 × 30 1/4 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
- 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):
29: South Carolina Ballroom, 1775–1835 The principal sources for this elegant interior were architectural elements from the first-floor hall and second-floor ballroom of the William Gibbes house at 64 South Battery in Charleston. A planter and merchant, Gibbes built the handsome, three-story clapboarded dwelling, described as “of the purest Georgian style,” in 1772. A man of wealth and culture, he had…
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
