E27: French Library of the Modern Period, 1930s

Narcissa Niblack Thorne, creator of the Thorne Rooms, combined a deep knowledge of design history with a vivid imaginative sensibility. In the 1930s, she assembled a team of skilled artisans in Chicago to construct a series of intricately detailed interiors at the scale of one inch to one foot (1:12).

Conceived as a visual history of interior design, the rooms are at once scholarly and inventive. Meticulously researched and carefully composed, they balance historical accuracy with artistic interpretation. Each atmospheric interior feels like a stage set awaiting its occupants—two parts fantasy, one part history, and entirely absorbing.

Entry from Fannia Weingartner, Miniature Rooms: The Thorne Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago, 2nd ed. (The Art Institute of Chicago, 2004):

27: French Library of the Modern Period, 1930s
Rather than emulating a particular interior, this room combines elements of several styles developed in the decade following World War I in such centers of modern design and craftsmanship as Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. The setting conveys a sense of affluence and cultivation, of the 1937 Paris Exposition Universelle with its celebration of progress and modernity, and of the French colonial presence in Indochina.
Commenting that “modern French decoration has a very broad scope of ideas and types,” Mrs. Thorne created a streamlined architectural setting, whose modernity is accented by the sweeping curve of the wall to the right. The woodwork is bleached to a pale tone so as to provide, as she explained, “an effective background for [the] ornate Chinese ornament so much appreciated in France.”
The Asian influence is evident in the neutral tones of the fabrics and accessories, in the two side chairs inspired by bamboo originals, in the lacquered table, and in the Chinese brocade upholstery of the banquette and matching tub chairs, whose broad, stylized character recalls 1920s Art Deco design. Far Eastern accents are also found in the gilt Buddha and carnelian bowls on the shelf behind the banquette and the Khmer head on the pedestal.
The cubistic cityscapes flanking the fireplace are petit-point tapestries reflecting, in Mrs. Thorne’s words, “the new type of designs being done by a famous school of needlework in Vienna.”
The center doorway leads onto a formal rooftop garden arranged around a modernist sculpture of a half-nude female figure. The doorway to the right opens onto an iron-railed balcony, on which a table has been set for breakfast. From this vantage point unfolds a dramatic panorama of Paris, with the Eiffel Tower visible in the distance.
This room measures 16 1/8 x 24 3/8 x 19 1/2 inches.