E-23: French Dining Room of the Periods of Louis XV and Louis XIV
c. 1937
Medium
Miniature room, mixed media
Dimensions
Scale 1 inch = 1 foot: 48.2 × 79.4 × 57.9 cm (19 × 31 1/4 × 22 13/16 in.); Interior, Scale 1 inch = 1 foot: 48.9 × 80.7 × 58.8 cm (19 1/4 × 31 3/4 × 23 1/8 in.)
Classification
miniature
Department
Applied Arts of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
43761
Art Historical Context
Narcissa Niblack Thorne’s *E-23: French Dining Room of the Periods of Louis XV and Louis XIV* offers a captivating glimpse into eighteenth-century French elegance. Created around 1937, this miniature room—crafted at a precise one-inch-to-one-foot scale—recreates the refined atmosphere of aristocratic dining spaces from the Baroque and Rococo eras. Using mixed media, Thorne meticulously assembled walls, furnishings, and decorative details to evoke the grandeur of royal and noble households during the reigns of France’s famed Sun King and his successor. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago’s ...
About the Artist
Narcissa Niblack Thorne · 1882–1966
Narcissa Niblack Thorne (1882–1966) was born on May 2 in Vincennes, Indiana, the eldest child of William Niblack and Frances Caldwell Niblack. Her family relocated to Chicago during her childhood, where she received a patchwork education: homeschooled by a governess, public schooling from age eleven, private classes, and finishing at the elite Kenwood Institute in Hyde Park. Extensive family trave...