Victorian Parlor, c. 1850
The portrait of Queen Victoria, whose taste dominated fashion during her extended reign, 1837–1901, sets the tone for the Victorian structure of this parlor. Victorian style and design was dominated by weighty decoration such as patterned carpets, cozy home furniture, knick-knacks, and embellished surfaces. Parlor home furniture usually comprised a gentleman’s chair with superior back and arms and a lady’s chair, which was small at the sides to accommodate hoop skirts. This furniture is from a time period British dollhouse. The marble mantle is normal of the type. Other exclusive Victorian aspects consist of the “gas” chandelier with crystal prisms and the wax flower arrangement below a glass dome. The newspaper rack retains 1 of the several specific copies of the 1924 London Moments printed for the Queen’s dollhouse.
The Knoxville Museum of Art’s Thorne Rooms are between America’s most well-regarded miniature diorama groups. The Thorne Rooms have been made in the 1930s and 40s by Mrs. James Ward Thorne, Chicago, IL, who loved dollhouses as a youngster. Following extensive travels in Europe where she gathered miniature home furniture and extras, Mrs. Thorne experienced over two dozen miniature rooms designed by cabinetmakers from her very own drawings. They were made in a scale of 1 inch to a person foot. She painted and stained woodwork, papered walls, and designed textiles for the rooms. The rooms have been displayed in quite a few World’s Fairs. In 1933–1934 they were being exhibited at Chicago’s Century of Development Exposition. In 1939 they traveled to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Worldwide Exposition, and in 1940 they have been shown at the New York World’s Good.
Afterwards, Mrs. Thorne made 29 more rooms, copying Europe’s castles, museums, and historic houses. She commissioned architects to make historically precise settings and had textiles and carpets created by the Needlework Guild of Chicago. The rooms, tracing English and French fashion 1500–1920, have been exhibited in 1937 at the Artwork Institute of Chicago. In 1942 Mrs. Thorne gave a 3rd and ultimate group of Thorne Rooms to the Artwork Institute. These 37 rooms supplied a perspective of American Heritage, 1675–1940.
In 1962, IBM, which experienced ordered 29 rooms, gave nine of the original Thorne Rooms to Knoxville’s Dulin Gallery of Artwork, this museum’s predecessor. Our rooms have numerous of the miniature objects Mrs. Thorne collected all through her youth and on her travels. The Knoxville Museum of Art is 1 of five museums in the country to have a assortment of Thorne Rooms.
The restoration of the Thorne Rooms has been produced achievable by the generous support of Sherri Lee, in honor of Mrs. McAfee Lee.
Posted by Knoxville Museum of Art on 2009-04-20 18:40:26
Tagged: , Thorne Rooms , KMA , Knoxville , Museum , Artwork , Knoxville Museum of Art , miniature , diorama , dollhouse , miniature rooms , James Ward Thorne
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