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A17: Pennsylvania Kitchen, 1752

Scale miniature of a rustic but refined kitchen with a varnished wooden table at center and one chair. A dark wooden chest sits beneath the window at left, a spinning wheel in the left back corner. In the right corner is an ornately carved door adjacent to a staircase. Metal plates line a wide hearth.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • Scale miniature of a rustic but refined kitchen with a varnished wooden table at center and one chair. A dark wooden chest sits beneath the window at left, a spinning wheel in the left back corner. In the right corner is an ornately carved door adjacent to a staircase. Metal plates line a wide hearth.

Date:

c. 1940

Artist:

Designed by Narcissa Niblack Thorne
American, 1882-1966

About this artwork

Narcissa Thorne aimed to design convincingly lived-in miniature interiors; to contend with the absent fourth wall, she employed techniques of stage design. Here, for instance, the chairs around the kitchen table face outward, and the pieces of furniture are arranged so as not to obstruct one another. This careful placement allows viewers to see each element while also encouraging them to imagine scenes playing out within the space.

Status

On View, Gallery 11

Department

Applied Arts of Europe

Artist

Narcissa Niblack Thorne (Designer)

Title

A17: Pennsylvania Kitchen, 1752

Place

United States (Object made in)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1937–1940

Medium

Miniature room, mixed media

Dimensions

Interior, Scale 1 inch = 1 foot: 24.2 × 61.3 × 121.3 cm (9 1/2 × 24 1/8 × 47 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Mrs. James Ward Thorne

Reference Number

1942.497

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/45360/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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