E-24: French Salon of the Louis XVI Period, c. 1780

c. 1937

Mrs. Thorne designed this interior “entirely in the spirit of Marie Antoinette—dainty in coloring and full of her symbols of design.” The queen was fond of roses, which were often incorporated into the molded decorations of swags, garlands, and baskets in rooms such as this one. The garden tools and musical instruments in the carvings of the panel heads represent her love of nature and music. Speaking of the Petit Trianon, whose private rooms inspired this salon, Mrs. Thorne wrote, “Nothing could be more chaste, more restrained. This was Marie Antoinatte’s favorite retreat and it is here that I always feel her shadow.”

Status: On View, Gallery 11
Department: Applied Arts of Europe

Artist: Narcissa Niblack Thorne (Designer)
Title: E-24: French Salon of the Louis XVI Period, c. 1780
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 1932–1937
Medium: Miniature room, mixed media
Dimensions: Interior, Scale 1 inch = 1 foot: 38.1 × 52.1 × 43.2 cm (15 × 20 1/2 × 17 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. James Ward Thorne
Reference Number: 1941.1209
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/43764/manifest.json

Fannia Weingartner and Bruce Hatton Boyer, Miniature Rooms: The Thorne Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2004), cat. no. 24, pp. 80-81 (ill.).

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E-24: French Salon of the Louis XVI Period, c. 1780

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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.

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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.