Schoonhoven Dining Room
PhotographerPhotographed by
Harriet V. S. Thorne
(American, 1843 - 1926)
Dateabout 1900
MediumPhotography; gelatin silver print on paper
DimensionsPrimary Dimensions (image height x width): 7 3/4 x 9 11/16in. (19.7 x 24.6cm)
Sheet (height x width): 7 3/4 x 9 11/16in. (19.7 x 24.6cm)
Other (mat height x width): 22 1/16 x 16in. (56 x 40.6cm)
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineGift of the Rosalie Thorne McKenna Foundation
Object number2011.344.961
DescriptionInterior of a room contains an Empire-style dining table, Shaker chairs and a Revival-style china cabinet. The large windows are draped with heavy curtains and flanked by large carved columns. It appears that the windows look out onto the Long Island Sound, with a lighthouse, a ship and some trees.
Collections
Subject Note: The room has tentatively been identified as being in Schoonhoven. The room depicted in 2011.344.360 was identified as being in the Thornes' New York apartment, but both rooms have virtually identical friezes beneath the ceiling and similar oriental rugs on the floor. The view through the window clearly suggests that this photograph depicts a house on the shore. The inscription on the verso of a copy print identifies this room as the Schoonhoven dining room, looking out onto the Long Island Sound and Fair Weather Island.
"Schoonhoven" was the Thornes' name for their summer home on Black Rock Point in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It was designed in 1881 either by Stanford White or Bruce Price and was completed in the summer of 1882. It was the largest individually-owned property on the point, and featured a nine-hole golf course, a bowling alley, a wharf, vegetable and flower gardens and St. Mary's-by-the-Sea chapel. Schoonhoven was home to Harriet's photography studio, packed with props, costumes, backdrops and furniture. A fire gutted the top story in 1903 and after Jonathan's death in 1920, Harriet closed the studio, asked her sons to dispose of its contents. She moved to Bridgehampton, New York, for the summer months. The estate changed hands at least twice after 1920 before being razed sometime in the twentieth century.
From "Black Rock: A Bicentennial Picture Book" (Dick Jones, Charles W. Brilvitch), articles in the Bridgeport Standard (January 5, 1881, May 16, 1882) and the Bridgeport Post (September 9, 1903), and Rollie Thorne McKenna's essay for the 1979 Yale exhibition.Subject
Status
Not on view
Harriet V. S. Thorne
1910
Harriet V. S. Thorne
1910
