A World in Miniature

The Phoenix Art Museum exhibits 20 miniature room replicas by Narcissa Niblack Thorne

Ongoing

Phoenix Art Museum
1625 N. Central Avenue
t: 602.257.1880
e: Email Gallery
Visit Gallery Websites

Stemming from the Phoenix Art Museum’s permanent collection, the exhibition Thorne Rooms features the original small-scale rooms created by the Indiana native, Narcissa Niblack Thorne (1882-1966). PAM is one of three institutions to have amassed such a comprehensive collection of Thorne rooms, with a total of 20 pieces donated by the artist herself in 1962.

The miniature rooms on display at the Phoenix Art Museum’s Art of the Americas and Europe Galleries located on the second floor of the North Wing.

“[The artist] began to collect miniature furniture and household accessories during her travels to England and Asia shortly after the 20th century,” explains Rachel Sadvary Zebro, associate curator of collections at PAM. “To house her growing collection of miniature objects, she worked with craftspeople to design and create nearly 100 rooms. Her hope was for these perfectly proportioned rooms, at an exacting scale of one inch to one foot, [to] substitute for the costly and space-consuming full-scale period rooms that museums across the country were beginning to acquire.”

Sadvary Zebro adds that these [tiny] representations of interior spaces across the United States and Europe provide a glimpse into the architecture and furnishings of specific moments and trends in history. “The Thorne Rooms reflect the vision of Narcissa Niblack Thorne and the lives of the people who created them and even of those who lived in them,” says Sadvary Zebro. “Seen in the context of the museum’s Art of the Americas and Europe galleries, the Thorne Rooms are situated near cameos, fashion design and European portraiture.”

Narcissa Niblack Thorne (1882-1966), French Louis XVI Dining Room, 1774-1793, 1932-1937. Mixed media. Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, Gift of Niblack Thorne.

Visitors to the exhibition will find fascinating displays like the French Louis XVI Dining Room, 1774-1793, created between 1932 and 1937. “This room is similar in style to the Louis XVI Drawing Room with pastel-painted walls and simply carved, gilded furnishings,” Sadvary Zebro describes. “It is modeled after a dining room from a chateau in Fontainebleau, [and the] rug was Thorne’s first attempt at fine needlepoint.”

For Thorne’s piece American Federal Dining Room, c. 1800, dated between 1940 and 1960, Sadvary notes that the museum has two examples—a smaller and larger version. “The smaller version appears more inviting and features Wedgwood Jasperware, a type of pottery developed by Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) in England,” she says. “The larger version includes English porcelain, silver and crystal, and a portrait of two young ladies painted in the manner of Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828), an important artist of the Federal period—referring to the period following the American Revolution (1775-1783).”

Narcissa Niblack Thorne (1882-1966), American Federal Dining Room, c. 1800, 1940-1960. Mixed media. Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Niblack Thorne.

Additional highlights include the Art Deco Penthouse Dining Room, c. 1925, executed between 1932 and 1937 combining geometric motifs with elements from classical antiquity.“Thorne traveled throughout the Mediterranean and acquired a group of statues and ornaments in miniature that suggested the opulence of a Roman villa,” Sadvary Zebro shares.

Narcissa Niblack Thorne (1882-1966), Art Deco Penthouse Dining Room, c. 1925, 1932-1937. Miniature Room. Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, Gift of Niblack Thorne.

Visit the Phoenix Art Museum to witness these one-of-a-kind, detailed masterpieces in person. In addition, each piece in this exquisite collection is lit from the inside, and accompanied by English and Spanish labels that include details on the period-style rugs and decorative objects.