● On view now — Gallery 11
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago · verified July 2026
FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG
The sixty-eight Thorne Miniature Rooms enable viewers to glimpse elements of European interiors from the late 13th century to the 1930s and American interiors from the 17th century to the 1930s. Painstakingly constructed on a scale of one inch to one foot, these fascinating models were conceived by Mrs. James Ward Thorne of Chicago and constructed between 1937 and 1940 by master craftsmen according to her specifications. The English Drawing Room of the Georgian Period, c. 1800, reproduced here in detail, was intended to illustrate the late-18th-century Neoclassical style of designer Thomas Sheraton, distinguished by elegant, light shapes and colors. The furniture replicas, made in England, include a harpsichord that is strung with wires attached to moveable ivory keys.
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E-21: French Boudoir of the Louis XV Period, 1740-60
E-26: French Anteroom of the Empire Period, c. 1810
E-23: French Dining Room of the Periods of Louis XV and Loui
E-28: German Sitting Room of the Biedermeier Period, 1815-50
E-25: French Bathroom and Boudoir of the Revolutionary Perio
A30: Georgia Double Parlor, c. 1850
E-19: French Dining Room of the Louis XIV Period, 1660-1700
E-18: French Salon of the Louis XIV Period, 1660-1700