The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureArt

Small Stories: At Home in a Doll’s House at the V&A Museum of Childhood

Small Stories: At Home in a Doll’s House at the V&A Museum of Childhood | Exhibition review
12 December 2014
Naomi Joseph
Avatar
Naomi Joseph
12 December 2014

Exhibition and art

Dates

13th December 2014 - 6th September 2015

Entry

Free

Links & directions

WebsiteMap

Through the stories of 12 doll’s houses from the past 300 years, visitors to the V&A Museum of Childhood are offered a unique look at British social history.Small Stories in Museum of Childhood by Rosie Yang (6)

By way of these doll’s houses visitors gain an insight into the dreams, imaginations and realities of those who first owned these beautiful sets. Doll’s houses, which first emerged in the 17th century, were designed not to be played with but to stand as miniature representations of the homes and wealth of their owners. It wasn’t till much later that they became accepted as children’s toys. While their purpose changed, from social piece to toy, they still maintained their master mimicry of contemporary life.

These houses’ small residents with rouged cheeks and beautifully detailed attire are presented in poses evoking the daily routines of the individuals they mime. There are houses with ladies entertaining and servants busy in the kitchens, and others with women sunbathing on the roof, and families poised for an air raid in 1930s England. Through these static figures, and the houses themselves, a sense of daily life is gauged, as well as that of the etiquette, interior design and architecture of the time.

While these houses are historical markers, they are idealised versions of that history. These figures trapped within time were not subject to ebb and flow of life but were immune in their immaculate structures; therefore, the houses and their occupants are representations of the dreams and fantasies and so provided escape to their owners. With each house comes a small story, visitors are taken on journey into these tiny homes as they are presented with tales of marriages and parties, politics and crime. Such narrative is enabled through buttons alongside the showcases that activate narration and illuminate the doll’s houses.

This exhibition is as much for adults as it for children. Both will be taken by the experience of peeking into the tiny rooms, viewing their beauty and engaging in the lives of their tiny inhabitants, and the interactive element means that children will remain engaged. The exhibition includes two areas in which children can enact the lives they view within the houses. The first area allows them to become servants as they hang up washing or cook on the range; the second allows them to re-create 1960s life in a wonderfully decorated living room. For the adults there is much to be fascinated by including the social history captured in these structures, as well as the level of artistry and dedication within these truly enchanting doll’s houses.

Visitors can expect to be delighted by traditional doll’s houses, country mansions and Georgian town houses, to the less traditional of the 20th and 21st centuries, including a high-rise apartment and a modernist villa. What this exhibition highlights is that these doll’s houses are more than just toys – beautiful representations of our country’s past.

★★★★★

Naomi Joseph
Photos: Rosie Yang

Small Stories: At Home in a Doll’s House is at the V&A Museum of Childhood from 13th December 2014 until 6th September 2015, for further information visit here.

Related Itemsexhibitionmuseum of childhoodreviewsmall stories

More in Art

Ten artistic depictions of the Christmas story through the ages

James White
Read More

Five gifts for art lovers this Christmas

Emma-Jane Betts
Read More

Five alternative art exhibitions for Christmas 2020

Catherine Sedgwick
Read More

Sensing the Unseen: Step into Gossaert’s Adoration at the National Gallery

★★★★★
Anna Souter
Read More

Ben Uri Gallery and Museum: The evolution of a force for good

James White
Read More

Tracey Emin/Edvard Munch: The Loneliness of the Soul at the Royal Academy

★★★★★
Anna Souter
Read More

Magnetic North: Voices from the Indigenous Arctic at the British Museum

★★★★★
Samuel Nicholls
Read More

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Fly in League with the Night at Tate Britain

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More

Rob and Nick Carter on Connaught Village’s public neon installations: “Accessibility of art is crucial during a pandemic”

Lilly Subbotin
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Exhibition and art

Dates

13th December 2014 - 6th September 2015

Entry

Free

Links & directions

WebsiteMap

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Female filmmakers lead nominees for the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards
    Cinema
  • An interview with Ifrah Ismael: Tales from the Front Line and other stories
    Theatre
  • The Queen’s Gambit: A chess story that’s not about the moves but the motives
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Sleaford Mods – Spare Ribs
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Jeremiah Fraites: Piano Piano
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Win a copy of Link on Blu-ray
    Competitions
  • Unlimited Festival at the Southbank Centre: Centre stage for diversity
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • RSC Next Generation: Young Bloods proves Shakespeare is timeless
    Theatre
  • The White Tiger
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • The different types of Covid testing explained
    Tech & Sport
  • WandaVision: Marvel’s charming sitcom proves an astounding success
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • The Queen’s Gambit: A chess story that’s not about the moves but the motives
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Undercover at Morpheus Show Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Ten short literary collections to get you back into reading
    Literature
  • Mayor
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

AC/DC – Rock or Bust | Album review
Professor Green at the Roundhouse | Live review