A36: California Living Room, 1850–75
Narcissa Niblack Thorne (American, 1882–1966)
c. 1940
- Medium
- Miniature room, mixed media
- Classification
- Miniature room
- Dimensions
- External: 64.8 × 114.3 × 104.2 cm (25 1/2 × 45 × 41 in.); Internal (main room only): 25.4 × 61 × 44.5 cm (10 × 24 × 17 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):
36: California Living Room, 1850–75 Monterey—the capital of northern California for most of the period from 1775 until 1847, when the Californios, or Spanish colonists, who had controlled California since the late sixteenth century were defeated by the United States—was a whaling and fishing center. Its prosperity led to the development of a cultural life. The site of California’s first theater in 1844,…
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
