A8: Massachusetts Bedroom, c. 1801 c. 1940

This is Narcissa Niblack Thorne's miniature room, "Massachusetts Bedroom," made around 1801. It’s a tiny world, and it has so much to say about the one we inhabit. I can imagine Thorne, back in the early to mid-20th century, carefully assembling this miniature bedroom. Imagine the attention to detail, the hours spent finding and placing these tiny objects. Is it a reconstruction, or a vision? What's her relationship to the people who may have lived in such a room? The symmetry of the room, bisected by the bed is so interesting to me, like a perfectly staged theatrical set. Rooms like this are little universes, contained but hinting at lives beyond their walls. Looking at the artwork I can see how we are all in conversation with each other, across time and space. Every artist borrows, steals, and transforms. Thorne's Massachusetts Bedroom reminds us that art can take any form.