The Thorne Rooms

 

The last time I visited the Phoenix Art Museum, I made another trip through the room that houses The Thorne Rooms.  I posted about these miniature works of art six years ago so I thought it was a good time to do another post.  

These tiny rooms are the work of Narcissa Niblack Thorne (1882-1966).  Her uncle started her on a collecting journey when he began sending her pieces of miniature furniture that he picked up on this travels.  Soon she was also collecting pieces.  Starting in 1930, she began creating special rooms for the pieces commissioning pieces that she needed to complete each room.  All together, she created 99 rooms.  Thorne donated 20 of the rooms to the fledgling Phoenix Art Museum on its third anniversary.  The remaining rooms can be found at The Art Institute of Chicago (68),  The Knoxville Museum of Art (9) and the Children's Museum of Indianapolis (2). 

The detail in each room is simply amazing.  Everything is there from rugs on the floors to pictures on the walls to vases and flowers on the tables.

Each of the rooms is situated behind glass making them very difficult to photograph without reflections.  I managed these by pressing the camera lens up to the glass.  If works to ward off the glares but I don't get the whole room view that way.  

I think the very first one above is my favorite room.  It is described as a New York penthouse dining room.  This last one is also a favorite because I love Art Deco.  

If you click the link above and see my 2015 post, you will see a view of the whole room with this great looking window at the end.  I took another photo of that window when I was there a week ago and did some digital manipulation to give it its own artsy look.