E-6: English Library of the Queen Anne Period, 1702-50

Curatorial Overview

“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): 6: English Library of the Queen Anne Period, 1702–50Mrs. Thorne's appreciation of English eighteenth-century decorative arts encompassed a variety of styles. An admirer of the exuberant interiors created by architect Inigo Jones and the elaborate carvings attributed to Grinling Gibbons, she also took pleasure in the simpler lines of what is known as the Queen Anne style, which outlasted by several decades that monarch’s twelve-year reign (1702–14).Describing this interior, Mrs. Thorne wrote, “From a manor house in Derbyshire, I have copied a room which suggests the quiet study of an English squire—the ceiling is low, the plain [panels] are painted leaf green, which creates such a flattering background for the rich tones of the walnut furniture.”The style of the furniture in this room belongs, for the most part, to the early Georgian period, or the first quarter of the eighteenth century. Typical are the side chairs and settee—inspired by Chinese forms—with their curvaceous shapes, vaselike splats, and cabriole legs (curved outward at the knee and tapering into a pad or claw). The Chinese influence is also evident in the blacklacquered desk and red-lacquered corner cabinet of a somewhat later period modeled after a mid-century example in black and gold. In the eighteenth century, pine or other soft wood was used for furniture finished in this way. The Far Eastern note is continued in the porcelain urns on the top shelves of the niches and the carnelian pieces on the chests, tables, and desk.The two walnut chests, the barometer to the left of the fireplace, and the two miniature globes on the desk were all made in England. The landscape over the fireplace originated as the top of an old English cardcase; the portrait on the left wall is a rare miniature in oil on panel depicting Lucy, Countess of Sussex. Indirect lighting was common in secondary rooms of this kind and was provided by candles placed on stands—like the tripod by the leather wing chair—and in sconces like the ones flanking the mantel. The books in the two library niches were all individually bound and tooled in England. Mrs. Thorne had a great fondness for miniature books and used them in many of her interiors.This room measures 13 x 21 x 21 1/8 inches.”